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The Louisiana College football team put together their best, most well-rounded performance of the season last Saturday afternoon. The unfortunate part was that it came against the No. 1 team in the country and defending national champion University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. The Wildcats were the first team this season to eclipse the 300 yard mark against the nation's top defensive unit, gaining 435 yards of total offense and freshman quarterback Wayne Griffin was the first to throw for more than 300 yards against the Cru. The Wildcats will look to continue their momentum into the final week of the regular season as they travel to Brownwood, Texas to take on Howard Payne University with a 1pm kickoff.

Freshman signal-caller Wayne Griffin had his best performance of the season against the best defense the Wildcats have faced this year. Not only did he have a his second straight 300+ yard passing performance, he was 25-of-35 in attempts for a season best .714 completion percentage with no interceptions. The Wildcats passing attack ranks third in the American Southwest Conference at 310.3 yards per game and second in passing touchdowns with 31 on the season. With three receivers ranked in the top 10 in yards per game, Shedrick Davis (87.1), Drake Battaglia (82.2), Leondre James (57.2) Griffin has multiple threats to distribute the ball to on any given down. Running back Aaron Woods had been steadily climbing the rushing chart since earning the starting role just a few weeks ago and now sits at sixth in the ASC in rushing per game with a 62.1 per game average.

Howard Payne comes into the game with the ASC's least productive offense, ranking last in points per game at 16.9 and yards per game at 270.6. They have played three different receivers this season with Mitchell Jennings getting the start in the last three games and leading the team with 550 passing yards. Their rushing attack has been the strongest phase this year with Hunter Batten carrying the load at 156 attempts for 764 yards and six touchdowns. Batten ranks third in the ASC in yards per game at 84.9 with a 4.9 yard per carry average.

When the Yellow Jackets do put the ball in the air, it will be against the conferences top defender in terms of passes broken up this year in Willie Smith, who has 19 total this year, adding another last week against UMHB. Smith is tied for second in the single season rankings for passes broken up this year. Mitchell will also have to deal with the pressure of the Wildcat defensive line, especially the likes of Cade Maxwell and Brandon Zimmer who each contributed on multiple sacks last week. Zimmer is tied for fourth in the ASC with 11.0 tackles for loss this season and Maxwell sits with 9.0, but ranks third in the ASC in sacks with 6.0. He is just 2.5 sacks shy of breaking the single season record and 3.0 from breaking the career record of 20.0 held by Phil Ford.

This will be the 18th meeting all-time between the Wildcats and the Yellow Jackets with LC holding the 9-8 series advantage following last year's 35-7 victory in Pineville. Aurren Cooksey had a career day in the win, rushing for 201 total yards and two touchdowns with a 8.4 yard per carry average. LC dominated throughout the game, scoring in every quarter and putting the game away with two touchdowns in the fourth. The defense held HPU to 175 yards of total offense and just 65 passing yards.

The last time these two teams played in Texas didn't end quite as well for LC, with the Yellow Jacket making a 39-yard field goal with just three seconds remaining on the clock to win the game 18-16. The game-winning kick came just minutes after the Wildcats took the lead on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Easton Melancon to Lawrence Williams. Melancon finished the game with 244 passing yards and two touchdowns, and Cooksey carried the ball 25 times for 154 yards.

Live coverage of Saturday's season finale against Howard Payne will be provided by the HPU Sports Information Department at the links provided above. Coverage is scheduled to begin at 12:45 pm. The game can also be heard live on 104.3 FM The Bridge or at www.1043thebridge.net with play-by-play from Louisiana College Sports Information Director Brad Welborn. Pregame begins at 12:30 pm on the radio broadcast.


QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH JUSTIN CHARLES

ON THE HPU OFFENSE...They do a good job of running the football. They've got a bigger body kid that's very physical and they use him in a lot of different situations to get him the ball and get him going downhill. Their quarterback does a good job with the short passes and making sure you don't stop their run game right now you still have to respect us in the pass game.

ON THE HPU DEFENSE...They do some things that we've seen from other teams this season, but they play so hard up front that they can cause anybody some problems. We're looking forward to playing them because it's our last game of the year and we're coming off the way we played last week, but they present a problem because it's never been easy for us to play out there in Brownwood. We've been battled tested every time we've gone out there and this year should be no different.

ON FINISHING THE SEASON STRONG...We want to finish the season playing our best and if we can do that this week, and get all our our deficiencies out and play to the best of our ability that doesn't just lead us in next season it takes us to the offseason as well. We're not going to win games starting in August, we're going to win games starting next week.

AROUND THE ASC

THIS WEEK'S GAMES
Southwestern vs Texas Lutheran - Seguin, TX - 1pm
East Texas Baptist vs #1 Mary Hardin-Baylor - Belton, TX - 1pm
Louisiana College vs Howard Payne - Brownwood, TX - 1pm
#5 Hardin-Simmons vs McMurry - Abilene, TX - 1pm
Sul Ross State vs Belhaven - Jackson, MS - 2pm

WEEK 9 PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK – Brian Baca, QB, So., East Texas Baptist
East Texas Baptist University sophomore quarterback Brian Baca threw for 276 yards and two touchdowns on 22-of-34 passing and ran for 117 yards with a TD in the Tigers' 66-21 win over McMurry.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK – Tevin Jones, LB, Jr., Mary Hardin-Baylor
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor junior linebacker Tevin Jones (Belton, Texas / Belton HS) recorded a career-high 15 tackles, eight solo, with two for a  loss and a pass breakup in the top-ranked Cru's 51-20 win at Louisiana College.

CO-SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK – Ryan Travis, K/P, Gr., East Texas Baptist
East Texas Baptist graduate student kicker Ryan Travis (Jacksonville, Texas / Jacksonville HS) went 9-for-9 on extra point attempts and drilled a 28-yard field goal for 12 points in the Tigers' 66-21 win against McMurry. He also averaged 57.8 yards per kickoff with three touchbacks.

CO-SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK – Bryce Wilkerson, KR, Sr., Mary Hardin-Baylor
Mary Hardin-Baylor senior kick returner Bryce Wilkerson (Tyler, Texas / Lee HS) returned a kickoff 95 yards in the second quarter of the top-ranked Cru's 51-20 victory at Louisiana College. He also had a 28-yard return and caught seven passes for 77 yards.