JOURNAL SPORTS
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Missouri couldn’t solve the Louisiana Tech defense early, but scored on the first play of the second period and gradually pulled away to a 52-24 season-opening college football win on Thursday night at Memorial Stadium.
Tech (0-1) took a 3-0 advantage into the second quarter thanks to a 33-yard field goal by Jacob Barnes and a fine defensive start.
However, Missouri (1-0) broke through on its first play of the second stanza with a 5-yard touchdown run by Cody Schrader and quickly added another touchdown off a 29-yard pick-six, off a pass deflected by a defensive lineman.
That ended up being the theme of the night as the Tigers racked up 328 yards on the ground and nabbed three interceptions suffered by the Bulldogs’ starting quarterback Matthew Downing – two of them deflected.
Downing was able to get a big play, finding Griffin Hebert over the middle for a catch-and-run, receiver untouched 75-yard touchdown catch. Sandwiched around that was another 5-yard TD run by Missouri and an end-of-half 31-yard field goal for a 24-10 Mizzou advantage.
While the Bulldogs could not get the ground game going, the Tigers rushed for four more scores in the second half to put the game out of reach. Parker McNeil came in at quarterback and delivered two touchdown strikes to Cyrus Allen – one for 64 yards and another for 37 yards. The freshman wide receiver ended with five catches for a game-high 126 yards.
“The outcome is disappointing,” said Bulldogs’ first-year coach Sonny Cumbie. “I am discouraged by the outcome, but not discouraged by the way the players played. When you turn the football over three times on the road, it allows momentum to build against you.
“I was encouraged by the way our defense played for two-and-a-half quarters. They battled (and) created two takeaways. I think our players have fight in them. We understand we have 11 more football games.”
The next one is at home, against Stephen F. Austin, next Saturday evening.
The Downing-to-Hebert TD was the longest pass play by a Bulldog since November 9, 2019.
The Bulldog defense forced two turnovers – the first career interception by Maki Carabin and a forced fumble by BeeJay Williamson, who registered a game-high and career-high 12 tackles.
Photo by EMERALD McINTYRE, Louisiana Tech