HAMMOND, La. – Playing at Strawberry Stadium as part of No. 19/20 ranked Southeastern Louisiana's homecoming weekend, the Texas A&M University-Commerce football team spoiled the party with a 31-28 win on Saturday evening in the first Southland Conference game in program history.
 
Up by three with 4:44 to go in the game, the Lions put together a 15-play drive to march all the way to the Southeastern 12-yard line and kneeled it out for the Lions' first win over a Division I opponent this season and improved to 3-2 on the season. Southeastern falls to 3-3 overall and 1-1 in Southland Conference play, with Saturday evening being its first loss against an FCS opponent this season.
 
Andrew Armstrong (Dallas – Bishop Dunne) put together another stellar performance, recording two more touchdowns to increase his season total to nine and racked up 153 receiving yards. Returning to the field after missing the last two games, Eric Rodriguez (Fort Bend Travis) went 26 for 38 with four touchdowns and 374 yards against a Southeastern defense that averaged 241.4 passing yards allowed per game coming into Saturday.
 
On the defensive side of the ball, Michael Noble (Orange, Calif.) totaled nine tackles, while Darius Williams (Arlington Heights) had eight. The Lion offense outgained Southeastern, 485 to 384.
 
Southeastern had a 10-play drive to begin the game, making it all the way inside the A&M-Commerce 30-yard line, but two straight incompletions forced a turnover on downs.
 
Rodriguez connected with BJ Busbee (Long Beach, Calif.) for a three-yard catch on first down. On the next play, Rodriguez hit Kenedy Snell (Waxahachie) for a 69-yard touchdown to make it 7-0 in favor of the Lions.
 
The snap was fumbled, but Rodriguez recovered and hit Snell, who sprinted into the endzone. The Lions remained up front 7-0, until a nine-yard touchdown run by Jessie Britt tied the game at 7-7 with 13:40 left in the second quarter.
 
A&M-Commerce re-took the lead with a 33-yard field goal by Emmanuel Adagbon (Mesquite Horn) with 4:37 left in the second quarter. Adagbon went a perfect 4 for 4 in his point-after attempts as well.
 
Southeastern took its first lead of the game with 15 seconds left in the first half on a one-yard run into the end zone by Carlos Washington Jr., which capped a nine-play, 66-yard drive.
 
Sean-Krystoff King (Humble – Summer Creek) received the kickoff to start the second half and returned it to the A&M-Commerce 23-yard line. Rodriguez found Armstrong in the middle of the field and Armstrong did the rest to put the Lions up 17-14 with a 77-yard touchdown.
 
SLU was held to a punt in its first drive of the second half and A&M-Commerce poured it on with a 23-yard touchdown catch by Jaden Proctor (Mexia), Rodriguez' third touchdown pass of the game.
 
Facing a fourth and one at the A&M-Commerce four-yard line, Washington Jr. took a direct snap and punched it in to make a three-point game in favor of A&M-Commerce with 1:33 left in the third quarter.
 
Armstrong continued his strong start to the season with a four-yard touchdown catch with 8:22 left in the game. He is five touchdowns away from tying the program record for touchdowns in a single season.
 
Washington. Jr. brought SLU back within one possession with 4:44 left in the game on a one-yard touchdown run. Southeastern's offense did not get the ball back on Saturday evening.
 
Saturday's win marks 99^th career win for coach David Bailiff.


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A&M-Commerce returns to Louisiana to face McNeese next Saturday at 7 p.m.