BEAUMONT, Texas -- For the second week in a row, the University of the Incarnate Word football team took a top-10 opponent to the wire on the road.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the second trip produced a result
as heartbreaking as the first.
Down 17 in the fourth quarter, UIW got within three and had the ball with under two minutes to play, but a fumble sealed its fate in a 38-35 loss to tenth-ranked Lamar in Southland Conference action Saturday.
In a battle of two Cardinal squads, Incarnate Word was in desperate times when a 3-yard touchdown pass from Aidan McCown to Davin Driskell put Lamar ahead 38-21 in the opening moments of the fourth quarter.
But a defensive play turned things in UIW's favor.
Xavier Trotter burst into the backfield and stripped McCown, allowing
Patrick Batiste to scoop up the loose ball and return it 58 yards for a touchdown.Â
After the defense made another stop, the offense cut into the lead further, embarking on a 12-play, 61-yard drive, which was capped by a 3-yard touchdown pass from
Emmett Brown to
Tyrece Fairly-Diyem to make it 38-35.
Brown finished with 303 yards passing, 50 yards rushing and three total touchdowns. He added a 9-yard touchdown run just before halftime, while also connecting on a 74-yard touchdown pass to
Jacob Emmers in the third, the longest offensive play of UIW's season.Â
After making a critical 53-yard touchdown catch at Stephen F. Austin last weekend, Emmers carried that momentum over into this week, making seven catches for 104 yards, both career highs.
Following another defensive stop, UIW got the ball back with just under two minutes to play, but had to start at its own 8-yard line following a good punt by Lamar's Mason Stallons.
On third down, Brown found
Jayden Hibbler on a screen pass for what appeared to be a first down. But Hibbler, who scored the team's first touchdown on a 10-yard run in the first quarter, took a big hit from Jordan James, which jarred the ball loose for a Lamar recovery, allowing the home Cardinals to run the clock out from there.
Incarnate Word struggled to defend the run for much of the day, with Lamar gaining 275 yards on the ground. This included a 57-yard Jojo Uga touchdown run in the second quarter and a 62-yard Parker Jenkins touchdown run in the third.
Christian Barney had a game-high 10 tackles while
Jeremiah Young had nine, as well as 1.5 tackles for-loss and a sack.
UIW falls to 2-4 on the year and 1-2 in the SLC. The Cardinals are 0-4 on the road, playing three games against top-25 FCS teams and another against FBS Texas State.
Making things all the more heartbreaking is in the last two weeks, the Cardinals have lost to No. 5 Stephen F. Austin and No. 10 Lamar on the road by a combined five points.
UIW will look to get its momentum back when it plays its first home game in a month against UTRGV next Saturday.
The Oct. 17 tilt will kick off at 6 p.m. and be the first of three-consecutive home games.
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