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Updated Season Stats
A big first quarter from traditional American Southwest Conference power Mary Hardin-Baylor put the Louisiana College Wildcats in an early 24-0 hole that they were unable to crawl out of, as the #2 ranked Crusaders took a 45-24 win on their Homecoming on Saturday afternoon in Belton, TX.
 
The Wildcats went to their bag of tricks on the opening kickoff of the game, as senior kicker Adan Olivares attempted an onside kick after LC won the opening toss and elected to defer.
 
But the onside kick attempt was recovered by the Crusaders, and they wasted no time taking an early 7-0 lead on a 43 yard touchdown pass from Zach Anderson Wykeyhe Walker.
 
UMHB would then add a field goal, a 2 yard touchdown run by Blake Jackson, and another long touchdown pass from Anderson to Eric Nelson to give the Crusaders a 24-0 lead after one quarter.
 
The Wildcats would start to show signs of a comeback after that, however, as sophomore quarterback Easton Melancon hit junior receiver Ladarius Gardner for a 56 yard touchdown connection with 8 minutes left in the half to cut into the lead at 24-7.
 
After Anderson hit Eric Nelson on a touchdown pass on UMHB's next possession, Melancon would again find Gardner with just over four minutes left in the half, this time for 13 yards and another score.
 
LC's "white shirt" defense would hold UMHB from there, and Olivares would hit a 34 yard field goal on the last play of the half to make the score 31-17 going into the locker room.
 
Despite a strong effort from the Wildcat defense again in the 3^rd quarter, LC was unable to take advantage of the momentum they had gained before the half, and Crusaders were able to put up a backbreaking touchdown on a 64 yard touchdown run by Jackson with 26 seconds remaining in the quarter.
 
Jackson would also be involved on UMHB's final score, as he tossed a 78 yard scoring pass to Walker on the Crusader's first drive of the 4^th quarter to go up 45-17.
 
LC's final score would two possessions later when Melancon found Farron Jones on a 6 yard touchdown strike for his third touchdown pass of the game.
 
Melancon finished the game with 383 yards passing and three touchdowns on 71 attempts, which is one shy of the school record set by Wes Cooper.
 
In his two career games against the Crusaders, the sophomore quarterback has thrown for 802 yards and 7 touchdowns.
The Wildcats had three receivers go over the 100 yard mark as Farron Jones (11 catches, 115 yards), Ladarius Gardner (7 catches, 103 yards), and Shedrick Davis (6 catches, 110 yards) all went over the 100 yard plateau on the afternoon.
 
Senior linebacker Landon Henry led the Wildcat defense with 12 total tackles while fellow senior linebacker Grayson Pylant was outstanding as well, finishing with 3.0 tackles for loss.
 
The Wildcats (2-4 overall, 0-1 in ASC play) will return home for the first time in a month next Saturday to take on their archrival East Texas Baptist in the "Battle for the Border Claw" which the Wildcats have won the last six times the two teams have played.
 
That game is slated to begin at 4:00 p.m. in Wildcat Stadium.