COMMERCE – In the friendly confines of Ernest Hawkins Field at Memorial Stadium, the Texas A&M University-Commerce football team ended its season with a 30-10 win over Eastern New Mexico on Saturday evening as part of Senior Day.
 
The Lions end their final season in NCAA Divison II with a record of 7-4. A charter member of the Lone Star Conference, the Lions finished with a record of 5-2, finishing tied for second in their final season in the conference.
 
In 549 LSC games, the Lions posted a record of 323-214-12 and won 23 LSC titles in program history.
 
SENIOR DAY
Twenty-one seniors, including 11 that were part of the 2017 National Championship, were honored prior to the game. The class as a whole, finishes their careers with 42 wins, which are the third most among any senior class in program history. All four top senior classes have come in the last four years.
 
The honorees were Devin Beamon, Caleb Cilumba, Chance Cooper, Elijah Earls, D'Angelo Ellis, Dominion Ezinwa, Shane Gosson, Carandal Hale, Christian Hernandez, Jaylon Hodge, Kader Kohou, Antonio Leali'ie'e, Wyatt Leath, Dontay Mayfield, Dominique Ramsey, Alex Shillow, Amon Simon, Austin Smith, Jake Viquez, Cedrick Wilcox III, and Brenden Young.
 
For the third straight game, there was no score through the first quarter. The Lions' first points of the day came in the second quarter on a 73-yard fumble recovered for touchdown by Wilcox III (Port St. Lucie, Fla.). Wilcox III led the team with 10 tackles. Fellow seniors, Shillow (Pflugerville), Ezinwa (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.), and Elijah Earls (San Antonio – Stevens) had eight, six, and six, respectively.
 
The Greyhounds cut into the Lions' lead with a 25-yard field goal by Cooper Hamilton. The Lions answered with a 30-yard field goal on the other end by Viquez (Rockwall) to push the lead back to seven. Viquez missed both of his kicks into the wind, but knocked down the one with the wind on his back in the second quarter.
 
J.T. Smith (Klein Oak) caught a 53-yard pass from Eric Rodriguez (Missouri City – Fort Bend Travis) and sprinted into the end zone for the touchdown. Rodriguez threw for 165 yards and a touchdown on 7 for 14 passing, he also had an interception. His longest throw of the game came to Andrew Armstrong (Dallas – Bishop Dunne) for a 60-yard connection.
 
Playing as defensive backs throughout their five seasons, Ramsey (Converse – Judson) and Kohou (Euless – Trinity) lined up receivers on Saturday and both caught a pass. Kohou's catch was for 40 yards and Ramsey's was for 11. Ramsey also had a carry for three yards and threw a 44-yard pass to Matt Childers (Henderson).
 
Rodriguez started the third quarter with a one-yard touchdown rush. He had 29 yards on six rushing attempts. Leali'ie'e (Copperas Cove) led the team with 44 rushing yards. Smith added another touchdown in the third quarter, this time, a seven-yard run to make it 30-3. Smith had 26 yards on the ground.
 
Eastern New Mexico shutout A&M-Commerce in the fourth quarter and scored its only touchdown at the 9:38 mark of the quarter, a three-yard rush by quarterback Nathan Valencia.
 
The Lion defense allowed 189 yards of total offense in the first half, but locked down and allowed only 54 yards in the second half. They had two sacks in the game, first was a solo sack by Darius Williams (Fort Worth – Arlington Heights) and a combined sack by Justice Williams (Detroit, Mich.) and Hodge (Houston – Fort Bend Travis).
 
Daryion Taylor (Humble – Atascotica) had a fumble recovery and Kohou had two pass breakups.
 
The full 2022 schedule for the Lions, who will play in the Southland Conference of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision, will be released in the coming months.


POSTGAME INTERVIEW