Put It In The Books As A Win!

We beat SEOSU 38-24. They pulled out all the tricks but in the end the Hogs prevailed!

The fourth-ranked Texas A&M-Kingsville football team took care of business on Senior Night in their 38-24 victory over Lone Star Conference North Division rival Southeastern Oklahoma on Saturday night at Javelina Stadium. (box score)

The Javelinas (10-1, 9-1) raced out to a 38-10 lead after three quarters and then let off the pedal as the Savage Storm (3-8, 3-7) scored twice in the final eight minutes of the game. Southeastern finished with 303 yards of total offense, but 159 of those yards came in the fourth quarter against the second string defense of the Hogs.

The Javelinas received large production out of a trio of offensive players in quarterback Nate Poppell (Spring/Spring HS), running back Jonathon Woodson (Missouri City/Marshall HS) and wide receiver Ryan Lincoln (Bastrop/Bastrop HS). Poppell finished the night 16-of-21 for 264 yards and two touchdowns in two and a half quarters of work. Woodson had 15 carries for 95 yards and two touchdowns with most of his damage done in the first half. Lincoln closed out his final regular season home with 120 yards receiving, 64 yards rushing and a pair of touchdowns for a career high 184 yards from scrimmage.

The Javelinas scored first in the game when senior kicker Christian Brom (McAllen/McAllen HS) booted a career long 49-yard field goal with 10:37 to play in the first quarter. The score was set up by a 47-yard pass from Poppell to Lincoln on their first offensive play from scrimmage.

The Hoggies forced a Storm punt on the ensuing possession and Arron Fisher (Orlando, FL/West Orange HS) returned the kick 41 yards to the SOSU 45-yard line. Seven plays later, Woodson scooted around right end for a 13-yard score with 4:10 left in the quarter.

The Javelinas regained possession of the ball just before the end of the first quarter. Unfortunately, on their first play of the drive Poppell was sacked by Derrick Joslin and fumbled the ball. Brandon Ford recovered for the Storm and took it 35 yards for a touchdown with 41 seconds left in the first quarter to make it 10-7.

On their next possession, the Javelinas drove 62 yards in 10 plays and scored on a Woodson 1-yard plunge with 10:41 left in the second quarter. The key play of the drive was a 51-yard pass and catch from Poppell to Christian Taylor (Houston/Westfield HS) on third-and-22.

A DeIra Glover (Hempstead/Hempstead HS) interception gave the ball back to the Javelinas less than two minutes later at their own 3-yard line. A 48-yard run by Woodson got the team out of the shadow of the goal post. The Hoggies would stall at the SOSU 19-yard line and Brom came on to try another field goal, but this one was blocked by Joslin to keep the score, 17-7.

It appeared the game would go into the half with the same score, but another good punt return by Fisher set the team up at the Storm 32-yard line with 59 seconds remaining. A 25-yard pass to Robert Armstrong (Cuero/Cuero HS) set up a first-and-goal at the 5-yard line, but back-to-back penalties sent the team back to the 20. Poppell went back to Armstrong and found him for a 20-yard scoring strike with 19 seconds left in the half.

The third quarter began with the Storm attempting an onside kick that the Hoggies recovered. They were unable to move the ball much and Brom had his 49-yard field goal attempt come up short.

The Storm put together a nice 13-play, 62-yard drive that ended with a 23-yard field goal by Chris Peoples with 9:36 remaining in the quarter. SOSU was able to keep the drive alive on a fake punt that resulted in a first down when punter Nick LaToof gained 15 yards on a run.

The Javelinas came right back and scored on Poppell’s final drive of the night. He went 4-for-4 for 61 yards and a 30-yard scoring strike to Lincoln with 6:15 left in the third to make the score 31-10.

The Hoggies scored again on their next drive. Lincoln took a reverse and went 56 yards on the ground for the touchdown. It looked like he was going to be bottled up around the 20-yard line, but a cutback and two blocks freed him for the score with two seconds left in the period.

The Javelinas emptied the bench in the fourth quarter and the Storm was able to take advantage with a pair of touchdowns. The first came on a 6-yard Logan Turner rush with 7:44 to play. The second came on a 13-yard pass from Turner to Aaron Stringfellow with 1:54 remaining in the game.

The Javelinas gained 468 yards of total offense, but were penalized 14 times for 124 yards. Lincoln led the team with five catches for a season high 120 yards while also picking up 64 yards on two rushes. Taylor added a career high four catches for 73 yards. Fisher had his best returning game of the season with three punt returns for 78 yards and a kick return for 38 yards.

Junior Marcus Sanders (Houston/Westfield HS) led the Hoggie defense with 11 tackles. Senior Jimmy Lugo (Alice/Alice HS) had a pair of tackles for loss while senior Mike Talamantez (Laredo/United HS) finished with six tackles, a pass breakup and a half sack.

The Savage Storm was led by their quarterback Logan Turner. He went 20-for-35 for 241 yards, a touchdown and an interception. His favorite target was Baylen Laury who had six catches for 37 yards while Ryan Shelley finished with five catches for 81 yards. Laury, the top rusher in the LSC, gained 55 yards on 23 carries.

Steven Harris led the Storm defensive effort with eight tackles while Dexter Elliott and Alex Moore each had two tackles for loss. Joslin had a big game with a sack, forced fumble and field goal block.

For Lincoln, it was his third game with at least 100 yards receiving on the season and eighth of his career. He has now scored at least one touchdown in each of his last four games and is tied with Woodson for the team lead with eight touchdowns. In his last five games he has 152 yards rushing and 454 yards receiving. He is already the school record holder for career receptions with 205 and moved into second place in career receiving yards with 2,832 passing up Dwight Harrison.

This is the 16th time a Javelina football team has won at least 10 games in a season and first time since 2003. With the regular season complete, the team will find out their playoff fate on Sunday at 2 p.m. on ESPNews.