After breaking a 20 game losing streak against Northeastern State University the Lions lost to the University of Central Oklahoma 31-0. The game against UCO would be the third time the Lions have failed to score any points in a game this year.

 The Lions’ defense was able to hold UCO to ten points in the first half, but would give up another 14 points in the second half both of which were rushing touchdowns. 

UCO also had a solid outing from their starting quarterback, sophomore, Will Collins who had 227 yards passing on 19 completions for a touchdown and an interception. 

The Lions’ starting quarterback, junior, Sean Kelly only had seven completions for 53 yards and an interception. There was another great outing by Lions running back, sophomore, Dalton James who had his third 100 yard rushing performance of the year with 109 yards on the ground and three receptions for 20 yards. 

James also had a fumble at the end of the game that UCO would pick up and return for a touchdown. That pushed the lead to 31 and would end the game. 

There was also a strong outing from the Lions freshman, Alan Glanville who had his third double digit tackle game of the year with ten. Glanville is second on the team with 55 tackles behind junior, Justin Legier who has 70 tackles this season. 

The Lions will travel tomorrow to play against the Emporia State Hornets. The Lions haven’t beat the Hornets since 2009 in a game where the Lions won 34-13. The Lions came close last year at homecoming, looking for the upset, but lost 36-29 in a shoot out. The Hornets’ offense has been hot recently scoring at least 28 in their last four games. 

“They are hot right now, they’ve beat some very good football teams. Offensively they go really fast, it looks like they’ve got their first 15 to 20 plays memorized. Then defensively they have an opportunistic defense, their numbers aren’t as good because they are set up to be an offensive program, but their numbers aren’t good as what they actually are defensively,” said Interim Head Coach Joe Bettasso on the Hornets team heading into the game this Saturday. 

The Hornets traveled to Washburn University last week to win 34-31 in overtime. The Hornets top performer was, senior, Braxton Marstall who had 32 completions for 373 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions. Marstall also had 40 yards rushing for two touchdowns on the ground. The Hornets’ leading rusher was, senior, Landon Nault who had 73 yards on the ground, while, senior, Justin Brown had seven receptions for 91 yards and a touchdown. On the defensive side, sophomore, Jace McDown had 14 tackles in the game last Saturday. The Hornets also had three players receive honors in the MIAA this week with Marstall getting offensive player of the week, McDown earning defensive player of the week, and Brown getting special teams player of the week. 

The game will be tomorrow at Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas. The game will kickoff at 2:00 p.m. at Jones Field in Welch Stadium.