SAN ANTONIO -- Running back Ra'Quanne Dickens enjoyed a record-breaking night -- and the Cardinal defense was suffocating when it mattered -- as the University of the Incarnate Word football team won its home opener with a 31-7 victory over Stephen F. Austin on Saturday night at Benson Stadium.
 
After playing two FBS opponents to open its season, the Cardinals enjoyed a Southland Conference opener that also represented their first win over SFA in program history. UIW is now 1-2 overall and 1-0 in conference. SFA fell to 1-1 and 0-1.
 
Offensively, UIW racked up 453 yards, while Dickens highlighted the game with 220 of UIW's 265 rushing yards.
 
The defense forced two interceptions, recovered one fumble, and forced SFA to turn the ball over on downs four times.
 
It was the first career win as a head coach for new UIW head coach Eric Morris.
 
The Cardinals took the opening kickoff and marched 77 yards in nine plays to score on Dickens' 13-yard touchdown scamper. Key plays included an 11-yard run by quarterback Jon Copeland and Copeland's nine-yard pass to Lamont Johnson.
 
After several exchanges of possession, UIW took a 10-0 lead on a 27-yard field goal by Rhett Marshall. The drive covered 67 yards in 10 plays. During that drive, Copeland completed three first-down passes: a 20-yarder to Kody Edwards, a 24-yarder to Dorland Fields, and a 15-yarder to Johnson.
 
The Lumberjacks responded with a 53-yard, 7-play drive capped by Foster Sawyers' 14-yard touchdown pass to Josh McGowan, leaving UIW with a 10-7 lead.
 
After exchanging possessions, linebacker Silas Stewart's key interception gave the Cardinals the ball at the UIW 49. From there, UIW mounted a four-play drive consummated by Copeland's 27-yard touchdown pass to Kam Williams. That gave UIW a 17-7 lead with 9:46 remaining before halftime.
 
With 1:20 left in the second quarter, backed up to their own three-yard line by a Lumberjack punt, the explosive Cardinal offense went 97 yards for another touchdown with two big plays. Copeland's 18-yard pass to Edwards got UIW out of the shadow of its goal post. Then, Dickens ripped off a 79-yard touchdown run that put the Cardinals ahead, 24-7, with 49 seconds left before halftime.
 
UIW's first-half heroics were not over. On SFA's third play from scrimmage following the ensuing kickoff, the Cardinals' Justin Alexandre sacked SFA quarterback Sawyer, forcing a fumble recovered by UIW's Darrius Montgomery. Taking over at the Lumberjack 18, Copeland delivered a touchdown pass to Williams with 26 seconds on the clock. The halftime score read: UIW 31, SFA 7.
 
SFA's offense threatened to open the second half, but UIW's defense stopped the Lumberjacks on third down and the 24-yard field goal attempt sailed wide left. UIW followed that up with another fourth-down stop to force Stephen F. Austin to turn the ball over on downs.
 
The Cardinal defense began the fourth quarter with the same stifling performance. The Lumberjacks ran 11 plays. Then, defending a fourth-and-11 situation on the UIW 43, Mar'kel Cooks again forced a turnover on downs when he broke up backup quarterback Jake Blumrick's pass as UIW secured the 31-7 victory.

QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH ERIC MORRIS
 
On Quarterback Jon Copeland…
  "He made a bad read [on the interception]. But he's 18 years old. You live and you learn. I thought he managed the game really well early. Any time you have a young quarterback and people are showing him different looks for the first time … he's seeing a lot of things for the first time in a game. We leaned on him early. We leaned on our offensive line and Ra'Quanne Dickens early. As I told everybody early on: We're going to take what they give us. Any time the running game is there early, it helps us develop a young quarterback."
 
On the defense…
 "I'm proud of our defense. I'm proud of our receivers. Our receivers aren't selfish at all. They're blocking their tails off and that's fun to watch. The defense did really well tonight. I'm proud of our whole team.
 
We didn't play all that well against New Mexico, so coach Deason took that really personally. He studied really hard after that game. They [the defense] executed really well tonight.
 
The only thing I didn't like was our personal fouls. I got after them at halftime for that. Those are the little situations that we'll improve as the culture gets better around here. We've got to avoid those situations to continue to win football games around here."