By PATRICK MEEHAN, Centenary Assistant AD for Strategic Communications
Centenary’s football team was two yards shy of a game-ending win over Lyon College two weeks ago, and gets the chance to finish the job this weekend.
Centenary will wrap up the season Saturday night in Little Rock, Ark. in the 2026 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships at War Memorial Stadium. The Gents (2-6, 1-3 SCAC) are the No. 4 seed and will face the third-seeded Scots (3-6, 2-2 SCAC) for third place in the final standings at 8 o’clock.
On Halloween night at Atkins Field, Lyon escaped with a 43-36 victory when a last-play bomb was stopped two yards short of the goalline. Theo Dunn caught a tipped pass a few yards away from the end zone but was tackled before he could score. That would have given the Gents a shot at a game-winning two-point conversion, or an extra-point kick to get to overtime.
Last Saturday, the Gents fell 28-20 to the Texas Lutheran Bulldogs in a conference game last Saturday in Seguin, Texas.
Sophomore Zane Wyss, a former Captain Shreve star, had the highlight for the Gents as he tied the record for the longest field goal in league history with his 53-yarder as time expired in the first half. Wyss was named the SCAC Special Teams Player of the Week on Monday, marking the second time this season that Wyss has won the award, also getting in the spotlight on Oct. 5.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: The Ladies (0-1) fell 57-48 to the Jarvis Christian Bulldogs in a non-conference contest on Monday evening as they opened their regular season inside the Gold Dome.
Junior guard Aniyah Davis was impressive in her Ladies’ debut as she led all scorers with 19 points and added a game-high 16 rebounds for a double-double. She played 37 minutes and finished 7-17 from the floor, 2-7 from beyond the arc, and 3-9 from the line. Davis added a pair of blocked shots.
The Ladies held a 28-22 lead at halftime. Jarvis Christian, though, finished with a decisive 17-5 advantage in the third period and edged Centenary 18-15 in the final 10 minutes to seal the win. The Ladies got within one point (39-38) with 7:16 left in the game but the Bulldogs closed on an 18-10 run.
The Ladies play their second of four consecutive games at home to open the season on Saturday at 2 against the ETBU Tigers.
MEN’S BASKETBALL: The Gents (0-1) will play their second and final exhibition contest tonight at Lamar University with tipoff set for 6 inside Neches Federal Credit Union Arena at the Montagne Center in Beaumont, Texas. The game will be available on ESPN+
The Gents and Cardinals have played 21 times with Centenary holding an 11-10 edge in the all-time series. The teams first met on Nov. 28, 1951 in Shreveport and the most recent meeting was on Nov. 23, 1996 which was also in Shreveport, an 80-70 Lamar win.
The Gents opened their regular season with an 86-79 loss to Belhaven last Friday in Jackson, Miss.
Centenary returns to regular-season play on Friday with a second trip to Jackson as the Maroon and White will face Millsaps College at 6 o’clock. The Gents’ first home game is next Tuesday against East Texas Baptist University at 7 p.m.
MEN’S SOCCER: A trio of Gents were named All-SCAC last week — senior Harvey Butcher, junior Andres Osorio, and junior Jesse Lang. Butcher and Lang combined for seven goals and seven assists this season and goalkeeper Osorio led the conference and ranked seventh in the country in saves (107).
WOMEN’S SOCCER: The Ladies placed six players on the All-SCAC Team highlighted by freshman Valerie Miranda being named the SCAC First-Year Player of the Year.
The six all-conference selections are the Ladies’ most since their program-record 11 in the 2020 season and second-most in the Division III era (2011-present). Miranda was joined by senior Sarah Crenshaw, sophomore Kaitlin Sprey, freshman Teagan Bollwerk, sophomore Alexandria Juarez, and sophomore Anna Hobart.
The rookie Miranda is the first in program history to win the award. She was also named to the all-conference First Team and All-freshman team, starting all 10 matches she played. Despite missing the last five matches due to a season-ending injury, she shined as she scored an impressive 12 goals and added two assists for a total of 26 points.
She recorded four multi-goal performances with three coming in conference play. Miranda, the team leader in goals and points, earned SCAC Women’s Soccer Offensive Player of the Week honors once, and her 12 goals are the fourth-most in a single season in the Division III era (2011-present) in program history and sixth-most in the career category. Her 26 points are the fifth-most in a season and top 10 for a career. Despite missing the final five games, she is still second in the conference in goals scored and third in points.
Miranda also set a Ladies’ D3 program era single-match record by scoring four goals in a 4-2 win over Millsaps on Sept. 25 while recording a program record eight points in the match. Miranda’s four goals against Millsaps are the third-most scored in a match in the country this season and are also tied for the third-most in a match in conference history (1991-present).
Contact Patrick at pmeehan@centenary.edu