Taking advantage of a pair of tipped passes in the opening quarter East Central Oklahoma got off to a 14-0 advantage at Incarnate Word Saturday night on the way to a season-opening 31-21 win over the homestanding Cardinals.
ECO's Kerel James got a tipped pass from a teammate and returned it 25 yards to get the Tigers on the board. Less than four minutes later East Central's George Robbins benefited from a tipped ball by a UIW defender and hauled the reception nine yards into the end zone. Brian Gonzalez kicked both PATs and that 14-point margin would stand up the rest of the way.
“The biggest thing was those turnovers,” UIW Coach Mike Santiago said. “I thought we did a nice job throwing the ball except for the two interceptions.”
In addition to the one returned for the score, East Central picked off the Cardinals one more time.
With 2:28 remaining in the first half Incarnate Word got on the board when Paden Lynch tossed three yards to Robert Anderson. Thomas Rebold kicked the extra point and UIW went to the locker room at halftime down just 14-7.
In the third quarter, with just a minute and 42 seconds run off the clock Robbins tallied again on a three-yard reception. Both his scoring catches came from quarterback Tyler Vanderzee who finished 15-28-2 for 192 yards and the two touchdowns.
Lynch and the Cardinals came right back with a pass to wide receiver Jacob Love. The PAT was blocked and it was still manageable at 21-13. But with UIW still hanging around at 24-13 in the fourth period the Tigers recovered a Lynch fumble at the Incarnate Word four yard line. On the first play Titus Mobley got into the end zone and with the PAT East Central had the margin up to 31-13.
“We knew it would be a close game, a tight game,” Santiago said. “They did a nice job of stopping our running game. Their speed on the edge was the big factor but I thought our guys battled and battled. It is going to be that way every week.
The running game cited produced but 50 net yards for the night. Trent Rios, the top rusher returning in the Lone Star Conference from 2010 led the Cardinals with his 58 yards on 17 attempts.
All three UIW scores were passes from junior quarterback Paden Lynch who was 18-31-2 for 124 steps and the three TDs. In addition to the scoring strike to Anderson, and the one to Love, Lynch found Rios on a seven-yarder in the fourth quarter. He then tossed it to Rios for a two-point conversion setting the final score.
On defense for the Cardinals the linebacker duo of Juan Asencio and Dakota Mawyer led the way. Asencio had 12 tackles while Mawyer was right behind with his 11. He also had a pass interception with a return of nine yards. Devin Haywood had the other UIW interception and his was a 23-yard return.
Next up for the Cardinals is a home game September 10 against Eastern New Mexico. This is a Lone Star Conference affair. Kickoff at Benson Stadium is set for 7 p.m.
