COMMERCE – The No. 6 Texas A&M University-Commerce football team held on through a wild finish to earn a 38-36 win over Texas A&M University-Kingsville at Memorial Stadium on Saturday night. Hatari Byrd blocked a field goal attempt as time expired to give the Lions their fifth straight win in the Chennault Cup series.
 
With the win, the Lions are now 4-0 on the season with a 2-0 Lone Star Conference record, while A&M-Kingsville is 2-2 overall and 0-2 in the league.
 
The Lions head to Goodwell, Okla., for their next Lone Star Conference game, facing off against Oklahoma Panhandle State at 1 p.m. on Saturday, October 1.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Senior running back Richard Cooper carried the ball 19 times for a career-high 224 yards and two touchdowns.
            - The 224 yards is the 11th-most in a game in school history.
- Luis Perez completed 10-of-19 passes for 133 yards and a touchdown.
- The touchdown pass was to Darby Smith, who led the Lions with four receptions for 91 yards.
- Neema Behbahani led the Lions with eight tackles. Tavita Faaiu had 1.5 sacks.
- Hector Dominguez averaged 38.6 yards per punt on seven boots, downing three inside the TAMUK 20-yardline.
- Buck Wilson averaged 27.6 yards on five kickoff returns and Shawn Hooks averaged 13.7 yards per return on three punt returns.
- A&M-Kingsville outgained the Lions 564-350 thanks to an 82-53 advantage in plays run and a 37:00-23:00 advantage in time of possession.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Javelinas opened the scoring when Julio de la Garza connected on a 45-yard field goal with 12:41 left in the first quarter to make it 3-0.
 
Cooper scored the first of his touchdowns from 34 yards out, giving the Lions a 7-3 lead with 7:47 left in the quarter. The scoring scamper capped a three-play, 41-yard drive.
 
A&M-Kingsville cut the lead to 7-6 on a de la Garza 29-yard field goal with 2:31 left in the quarter, but the Lions responded in kind. Kristov Martinez made a 37-yard field goal with 5.9 seconds remaining in the quarter to put the hosts' lead at 10-6.
 
Javelina quarterback Myles Carr found Roe Posada for a 10-yard touchdown pass on the fourth play of the second quarter to put the visitors back in front by a 13-10 count. A&M-Kingsville put the lead at 16-10 on a 27-yard field goal by de la Garza.
 
Cooper burst through the middle of the line from midfield, scoring from 50 yards out with 3:27 left on the first half clock. The Martinez PAT gave A&M-Commerce a 17-16 lead that would go into the halftime locker room.
 
The Lions had only four first downs in the first half, with two of them coming on the Cooper touchdown carries. This was in large part to the Javelinas' 20:05 to 9:55 time of possession advantage. The guests ran 41 plays to the Lions' 22.
 
Cooper eclipsed the 200-yard mark for the game on a 61-yard carry during the opening drive of the 3rd quarter to set up a 2-yard touchdown carry by Gabriel Rodriguez to make it a 24-16 Lion lead.
 
The Javelinas responded with their own touchdown when Carr found Anthony Autry for a 34-yard connection with 8:01 on the third quarter clock to cut the Lion lead back down to a point at 24-23. The guests took the lead with 17 seconds left in the third quarter on a 2-yard Luis Lopez touchdown carry, making it 30-24.
 
A&M-Commerce regained the upper hand with 10:41 remaining in regulation on a 52-yard touchdown pass from Perez to Darby Smith, making it a 31-30 lead.
 
After back-and-forth action, a Javelina miscue resulted in the Lions' first defensive score of the year.A&M-Commerce was forced to call timeout prior to a Javelina punt, then the guests changed course and opted to go for a fourth-and-1 at their own 18-yardline. The snap went over Carr's head into the endzone, where Danny Huckaby recovered it for a Lion touchdown, making it 38-30 with 4:27 to play.
 
The Lions downed a punt inside the A&M-Kingsville 1-yardline with 1:47 to play and the Javelinas out of timeouts. A&M-Commerce looked to be on the way to a touchdown win, but a missed tackle on the boundary allowed Jordan Thomas to catch a short pass and run 89 yards for a score, putting the lead to 38-36 with 1:26 to go. The two-point conversion attempt by Myles Carr fell short, forcing the Javelinas into an onside kick situation.
 
A&M-Commerce recovered the onside kick and seemed to be in position to kneel out the clock, but a mishandled snap on what should have been the game's final play was recovered by A&M-Kingsville. Fortunately for the Lions, an unsportsmanlike conduct call backed the Javelinas up to the Lion 35.
 
An incomplete pass, a short run and a spike set up an attempt for the Javelinas to win on a 55-yard field goal attempt, but Byrd charged through the line and blocked the kick, setting off the celebrations with the Lion faithful.