Turnovers keyed 2nd quarter surge
9/15/2013 9:34:00 AM | Football
The Bearkat defense made a statement Saturday.
During the first half of Sam Houston's 55-17 victory over Texas Southern Saturday, the defense held the Tiger offense to minus 21 yards rushing and 29 yards passing.
Takeaways on fumbles set up three consecutive scoring drives as Sam Houston went eight possessions in a row with touchdowns.
Safety Desmond Fite started things, recovering a fumble by TSU running back Edward Perkins-Loving thatput the Kats deep in TSU territory at the 24-yard line. A few plays later, the Bearkats (2-1 overall) broke through to the end zone on a pitch to Timothy Flanders for a 2-yard touchdown.
“I felt like we needed to get turnovers to get a little push for our offense,” Fite said. “We needed to get everybody pumped up. We had a couple of fumble recoveries. We kept doing what we needed to. We still had faith that they were going to get it together.”
The play of the defense helped the Bearkats seize control of the game with 27 points in the final six minutes of the first half.
“I thought we closed extremely well in the first half. We really did a nice job,” Sam Houston head coach Willie Fritz said.
Texas Southern could not get started against the Kats' number one defensive unit.
Linebackers Eric Fieilo and Tanner Brock led the defense with seven tackles each. Brock had two quarterback sacks and Fieilo added another. Michael Wade and Eric Humphrey also had big fumble recoveries. Andrew Weaver's big hit also caused a TSU miscue.
“They did come out with a fast tempo at the start of the game,” Fieilo said of Texas Southern's offense. “After playing Texas A&M last week, we were used to it as the game went on.”
Saturday was a big day on offense as well with running back Timothy Flanders breaking the Southland's all-time touchdown record with a pair of scores. Flanders now as 61 touchdowns during his career.
“It felt good,” Flanders said. “I was talking with one of the coaches about it during the week. The offensive line did a very good job. They knew it. I thank them and the coaches. We talked before the season started about getting all these records. I look at it as another team record.”
With a big lead in the fourth, that allowed SHSU backups such as quarterbacks Don King III, who threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Ragan Henderson in the fourth, and Jared Johnson as well as running backs Ryan Wilson, Steven Hicks and Cory Idlebird to get some much-needed playing time.
“We got an opportunity to play a lot of young guys to see what they can do. Some guys — we'll go back and look at the tape — took advantage of their opportunity and they're going to play a lot more and some guys didn't play real well,” Fritz said.
The Texas Southern game was the first of four consecutive home games for Sam Houston. The Bearkats play host to Incarnate Word next Saturday, Sept. 21, at 6 p.m. Then on Saturday, Sept. 28, No. 2 Eastern Washington comes to Huntsville for the most anticipated FCS match-up of the 2013 season.
Tickets for all remaining SHSU home games plus the 88th “Battle of the Piney Woods” at Reliant Stadium in Houston on Nov. 2 are available online at www.gobearkats.com .
The Sam Houston athletic ticket office located in the south end zone of Bowers Stadium is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The ticket office telephone number is (936) 294-1729.
