Oct. 2, 2010

Box Score

BEAUMONT - Tim Flanders ran for 153 yards and three touchdowns Saturday night as Sam Houston State defeated Lamar University 38-10 before a crowd of 17,187 in Provost Umphrey Stadium.

In moving to 2-2 on the season, the Bearkats outgained the Cardinals 446-287 in total yards, and they controlled the ball for 40 minutes to the Cards' 20. The Cardinals finished the game with a negative 23 yards rushing as quarterback Andre Bevil suffered three sacks for 25 yards in losses.

"I thought we had a better chance than that tonight," said coach Ray Woodard, who saw his team drop to 2-3 on the season. "We didn't do enough things right in all three phases of the game.

"Offensively, we couldn't make the plays necessary to sustain possession. Defensively, we didn't make stops, and we gave up a punt return for a touchdown.

"We're not anywhere close to where I want us to be. I'm not satisfied at all with what happened tonight. I coach to win, and I expect to win. A lot of people are offering excuses for us, but I'm not buying into any excuses.

"I saw a lot of effort out there, but I didn't see a lot of execution. I'm going to beat myself up a lot for this. I need to do a better job of coaching."

Flanders, a freshman from Midwest City, Okla., logged touchdown runs of 27, 1 and 3 yards before going to the sideline for the scoreless fourth quarter. It was his third-straight 100-yard rushing game.

The Bearkats' other touchdowns came on Brandon Closner's 39-yard punt return for the game's first score, and Brian Bell's 3-yard pass to Seth Patterson. They scored their final points on Miguel Antonio's 18-yard field goal late in the final minute of the third quarter.

Justin Stout kicked a 36-yard field goal for the Cardinals in the second quarter, and they scored their first touchdown in two games on Marcus Jackson's catch-and-run play of 66 yards in the third period.

"I've never seen a defense give up as many second-and-longs as we did tonight," said Woodard. "They (the Bearkats) made plays, and we didn't. They broke tackles, and they made tackles.

"Andre was not 100 percent tonight, but his ankle was not the difference in this game. We didn't execute and do the things we needed to do to win the game."

Bevil, who sat out the second half of the Cardinals' 71-3 loss to Stephen F. Austin the previous week, completed 22 of 40 passes for 310 yards, but he threw his eighth and ninth interceptions of the season, and the Cardinals also lost a fumble.

Jackson gained 126 yards on four receptions, and split end J.J. Hayes caught nine passes for 105 yards with a long of 32. Octavious Logan's two yards on one carry was the Cardinals' best rushing total.

"I'm banged up a little bit, but I'm not using that as an excuse," said Bevil, who has now passed for an even 1,500 yards in five games. "I'm used to getting out of the pocket and making throws, but I wasn't able to do that tonight.

"We need to get back in focus next week. We need to put the extracurricular stuff to the side and start putting football and school on the front burner."

Closner hesitated for a moment after fielding Lamar's first punt of the game, then picked up a wall of blockers to his left and followed them to the end zone on his 39-return that put the Kats up 7-0 with 9:39 left in the first quarter.

Later in the period, the Bearkats drove 58 yards on 11 plays, picking up three first downs along the way in expanding their lead to 14-0. Bell highlighted the push with a 23-yard pass to D,J. Morrow, and he completed it with his 3-yard toss to Patterson with 5:41 left in the opening quarter.

Logan brought the standing-room-only crowd to its feet by returning the ensuing kickoff 74 yards to the Sam Houston 21-yard line, A 16-yard Bevil pass to Jackson and a 5-yard face mask penalty on the Sam Houston moved the ball to the 4-yard line, but an 11-yard sack of Bevil later backed the Cardinals to the 20-yard line.

On the second play of the second quarter, Stout kicked his 36-yard field goal to slice the Cardinals deficit to 14-3.

The Bearkats answered, however, with a 5-play, 59-yard drive capped by Flanders' 27-yard TD run, and they later added a 67-yard, nine-play scoring drive. Bell kept it alive with 23-yard scramble on a third-and nine play, and he later completed a third-down pass of 21 yards to Richard Sincere to set up Flanders' 1-yard dive that made it 28-3 at halftime.

Flanders got 86 of his yards on 13 first-half carries, and Bell went 6-of-9 for 103 yards. Bevil went 11-for-19 for 111 yards in the opening half, but he threw one interception and was sacked twice for 19 yards in losses.

The Cardinals finished the half with a negative 19 yards on seven carries. They managed only four first-half first downs to the Bearkats' nine.

The Bearkats opened the second half with a nine-play, 62-yard scoring drive highlighted by a 16-yard pickup by Sincere to gain the Cardinal 2-yard line. Two plays later, Flanders carried the ball around right end for his 3-yard run to make the score 35-3 with 9:31 left in the third quarter.

Jackson made amends for fumbling the ball away on Lamar's first second-half possession by hauling in a short Bevil pass on their next possession and outracing the Bearkat secondary for his 66-yard touchdown. It was the Cardinals' first TD since Hayes caught the game-deciding pass in their 29-28 win over Southeastern Louisiana on Sept. 18.

Flanders' 22-yard run on a pitchout around left end carried to the 1-yard late in the third quarter, setting up Antonio's 18-yard field goal that made it 38-10 with 31.6 seconds left in the period.

The Cardinals will return to action next Saturday when they observe homecoming during football season for the first time in 21 years when they host Langston in a 6 p.m. game in newly-renovated Provost Umphrey Stadium.

LAMAR