MARSHALL, Texas --
Logan Rodriguez (Orange Grove/Orange Grove) and
Ja'Mare Nichols (San Antonio/Roosevelt) each accounted for two touchdowns while
Javin Logan (Houston/North Shore) added three touchdowns on the ground and
Adrian Sanchez (Glen Rose/Glen Rose) made a big defensive play late to secure Texas Lutheran's 61-54 victory against East Texas Baptist on Saturday.
The Bulldogs (3-1) bounced back from their 2025 loss to the Tigers (2-2) to win their first game against ETBU since 2021 in Marshall and losing the previous three matchups.
Jonathan Flores (Edinburg/Robert Vela) ran for a one-yard touchdown with 7:01 left, giving Texas Lutheran a lead it never surrendered. He capitalized on the explosive play from
Micah Casson (Killeen/Copperas Cove) to
Jarrell Smith (Beaumont/East Chambers) that got the Bulldogs into ETBU territory.
ETBU got into the red zone on their final drive, but an intentional grounding call cost the Tigers 20 yards and an offensive pass interference call cost the Tigers a touchdown before a pass break up from Sanchez forced the turnover on downs.
The Bulldogs played three quarterbacks on Saturday. Rodriguez finished 4-for-5 for 129 yards and two touchdowns. Casson was 9-for-15 for a team-high 168 yards and a touchdown while
Elijah Favela (Converse/Judson) completed 7 of 11 pass attempts for 143 yards and a touchdown. Logan had 14 carries for 62 yards and three TDs. Jonathan Pompey (Killeen/Shoemaker), who earned SCAC Offensive Player of the Week honors this week, had 18 carries for 139 yards and a touchdown. Nichols finished with three catches for 85 yards and two touchdowns while
Joe Perez (Schertz/Steele) led the TLU offense with six catches for 125 yards.
Texas Lutheran finished with 680 yards of total offense, finishing just 21 yards shy of the single-game program record of 701 yards set against ETBU in 2013.
Troy Tomaselli (San Antonio/Cornerstone Christian) and
Owen Garcia (Austin/Connally) led the TLU defense with nine tackles each.
Texas Lutheran concludes non-conference play next Saturday as the Lyon College Scots travel to Seguin to serve as the Bulldogs Homecoming opponent. Kickoff is set for 4 PM. The game will be broadcast on FloCollege along with KWED 1580 AM with Reily Chestnut and TLU football alum,
Beau Hill '26, on the call. Saturday Texas Lutheran Athletics will also induct four new members into the TLU Athletics Hall of Fame: former TLU Softball players, Taylor Grissom '16 and Taylor Yancey '16, former TLU men's golfer Adam Peterson '15 and former TLU women's tennis player Sofia Vega '16 in a halftime ceremony. Texas Lutheran will also recognize the the 1976 AIAW Volleyball National Championship team for their 50th anniversary as well as Athletics Wall of Honor recipients, Steve and Barbara Koehler '72 of the Koehler Company. All streaming and stats links can be found on tlubulldogs.com.
For more information on Texas Lutheran football, follow the Bulldogs on X (Twitter) and Instagram (@TLU_Football) and as always you can find updates on all Texas Lutheran athletics on tlubulldogs.com and all official TLU social media channels (@tluathletics on X (Twitter,) @tlu_athletics on Instagram, and @tlubulldogs on Facebook).
