MARSHALL, Texas -- Texas Lutheran's 2020-21 football season, a season delayed and then shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic, came to a close Saturday with a 51-20 loss at East Texas Baptist.
The loss came in the American Southwest Conference's match-up between the two No. 2 seeds - one from the ASC West Division (TLU) and one from the ASC East Division (ETBU). Both teams finished as a runner-up in their respective division.
TLU finishes the year at 3-2 overall and at 3-1 in the ASC West.
ETBU moved to 3-2 overall and had a 2-2 mark in the ASC East.
The Tigers scored 28 points in the second quarter to put the Bulldogs in a halftime deficit of 35-13.
TLU held a 10-7 lead with 3:02 to play in the first quarter after Juan Ocampo's 44-yard field goal. (Ocampo also would hit a 42-yarder later in the game.)
The Bulldogs struck first with a 14-yard touchdown pass from
Seth Cosme to
Chris Monroe at the 9:56 mark of the first quarter.
The ETBU offense started to hit high gear in the second quarter as quarterback Troy Yowman found DeCarlos Frazier, Kaleb O'Bryant, and Cornelius Merchant for touchdown receptions.
All three TD strikes came in the second quarter. The last two touchdowns were within 90 seconds of each other. Merchant's TD catch came with just 22 seconds left to play in halftime.
Yowman finished the day 26-for-38 for 424 yards and five touchdowns. He was picked off once.
O'Bryant had nine catches for 150 yards and three TD receptions.
Monroe scored a rushing TD and a receiving TD for the Bulldogs. The senior carried the ball 10 times for 47 yards against the Tigers. He had a 15-yard scoring run in the third quarter.
ETBU racked up 524 yards of total offense and held TLU to 272. The Bulldogs rushed for 159 and passed for 113.
James Bell led
TLU with 10 total tackles. He also had 1.5 tackles for loss. Dimitri
Zavala collected an interception and five total tackles.
