By PATRICK MEEHAN, Centenary Sports Information Director
SEGUIN, Texas – The Centenary football team takes another important step in its historic official return to the sport as the Gents open Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play Saturday evening at 6 against the Texas Lutheran University Bulldogs at Bulldog Stadium.
The Gents (0-1) fell 43-20 to the Hendrix College Warriors in their season opener at home last Saturday night in front of an overflow crowd at Atkins Field on the Centenary campus. TLU (1-0) upset nationally-ranked Trinity 35-20 in San Antonio last weekend.
“We are putting in a lot of effort as we prepare to face a strong TLU team,” said head coach Byron Dawson. They are well-coached and have plenty of talent. We believe that progress comes through a consistent process, so our focus is on the small details and improving each week.
“This will be our first conference game and our first away game of the season. We need to stay fully focused and ready to compete at the highest level on Saturday night.”
In its first official intercollegiate football game since World War II, Centenary fell behind the visiting Warriors by a score of 36-6 at halftime but outscored them 14-7 in the second half. Centenary wound up with 290 yards of total offense while Hendrix had 401 yards. The Gents, who had 20 first downs, found success through the air, finishing with 299 passing yards but struggled to run the ball as they were held to minus 9 yards on 17 attempts.
The Gents’ individual offensive stat leaders were junior receiver Kobe Chambers (9 catches, 106 yards) and freshman Kody Fuentes at quarterback (30-46 for 299 yards and 1 TD, 1 INT).
Defensively, last year’s quarterback, sophomore linebacker Vance Feuerbacher led the way with 9 solo tackles, 2 for loss, and made a fumble recovery.
Freshman Jacob Wilson, an Evangel Christian graduate, was honored nationally on Tuesday as he was named to the D3football.com Team of the Week. The defensive back had a pair of interceptions. His second pick of the game led to a Centenary TD two plays later. Wilson finished with two solo tackles to go with his two picks.
Centenary will be tested this month as the Gents will play three straight road games. After going to TLU, Centenary plays next Saturday at Austin College in another conference contest, and at East Texas Baptist University on Sept. 28 in Marshall, Texas.
The October schedule is more favorable as the Gents will play three of their four games at home.
Texas Lutheran earned its first victory over a top 25 opponent since 2019 with its win over No. 13 Trinity last Saturday in San Antonio.
TLU quarterback Caden Bosanko finished 21-of-31 for 240 yards and two touchdowns.
The Bulldogs finished 2-8 overall and 1-5 in SCAC play last season.
Live stats and live video are available for the game at the links below:
STATS: https://tlubulldogs.com/sports/fball/2024-25/boxscores/20240914_yz7b.xml
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/@tluathletics/streams
Contact Patrick at pmeehan@centenary.edu