Langston University out of Oklahoma scored in only two quarters Saturday night in San Antonio but the 28 points stood up in an opening night win at Incarnate Word preventing any Cardinals magic like a year ago.
One day and one year ago the Cardinals won their first game ever with a magical 42-39 victory over Monterrey Tech on the way to a final 5-5 mark in the inaugural season of football at UIW. But this time around things were different.
“We let a bunch of good opportunities to win a football game slip out of our hands,” UIW Coach Mike Santiago said afterwards. “We had sporadic play. We just can’t play that way. We didn’t sustain anything. But we did see some good play however.”
The Lions (1-0) got a pair of touchdowns in quarter number two the first coming on a 34-yard strike from Darrion Lewis to Carlos Ross. Lewis then threw 50 yards to Ron Celestine six minutes later giving LU a 14-7 halftime lead. Lewis finished the night 16-123-0 for 212 yards and the two scores.
Incarnate Word (0-1) got on the board first in the initial quarter when senior signal caller Thomas Specia went over from the one. That would be it for the Cardinals until Thomas Rebold kicked a 37-yard field goal at 11:28 of the third quarter.
The lone kick was not enough to overcome two quick strikes by Langston. At the 4:32 mark of the third Ricky Sherin ran four yards into the end zone making the score 21-10. Twelve seconds later Ronald Burgess scooped up a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and covered 24 yards putting the Lions up 28-10.
“Langston is a good team,” Santiago said. “That has been Langston’s style. They force turnovers and they have guys out on the field who can run. They forced us into turnovers last year too.” In that comeback 17-14 Langston win at Langston, the Cardinals had four interceptions and two lost fumbles.
“This team (Langston) is a better team than people think,” junior defensive tackle Diego McClain said. “We knew everything single thing they did. We knew when they were running, when they were passing. This is one is on us as players. The coaches did a good job of calling the game.”
Incarnate Word’s defense shut out LU in the fourth while the Cardinals’ offense put 10 points on the boards. UIW went on a 12-play, 75-yard drive ending in a Trent Rios one-yard run. Rebold’s PAT narrowed it to 28-17 at 13:47 of the fourth. Shortly after that, junior safety Sonny Estrada covered the ball after freshman running back Matt Garza blocked a Lions’ punt. The Cardinals did not do much with the opportunity and had to settle for the Rebold field goal putting the game at its final score.
Langston won the total yards by 292-264 but the Cardinals turned the ball over four times.
Trent Rios led UIW on the ground with 88 yards on 23 carries and one touchdown while Specia finished the night 15-32-3 for 144 yards but no scores. Senior wide receiver Jacob Love had five catches for 66 yards.
On the defensive side McClain finished with five tackles including one sack of the quarterback and one and a half tackles for losses totaling 13 yards. Sophomore corner Devan Avery and senior end Randy Enriquez led the Cardinals with eight stops each.
The Cardinals get a week off before returning to action with their first-ever Lone Star Conference contest. On September 11 UIW will be at Southeastern Oklahoma for a 6 p.m. kickoff. This contest begins 10 straight weeks of LSC play for UIW.
UIW VS LANGSTON STATISTICS