Texas Lutheran Falls to East Texas Baptist, 16-6, on Homecoming

SEGUIN, Texas -- A packed Bulldog Stadium that saw the crowd overflow onto the berms surrounding the field saw a defensive battle in American Southwest Conference play as East Texas Baptist crashed the Bulldogs homecoming party, defeating TLU 16-6.

DaKory Willis (Flatonia/Flatonia) scored the Bulldogs lone touchdown on a 43-yard connection from Caden Bosanko (San Antonio/East Central). With the loss, Texas Lutheran falls to 1-6 and 0-3 in ASC play while ETBU improves to 4-3 and 3-1 in conference.

ETBU would score on a 53-yard passing touchdown on their opening score to take a 7-0 lead before the Tiger offense would stall until a field goal halfway through the second quarter, extending their lead to 10-0.

ETBU would score on their opening drive of the second half taking a 16-0 lead after the extra point was blocked by Joshua Stanton (Houston/Lamar).

Texas Lutheran started to finally get some momentum late in the third following the passing touchdown to Willis shrunk the Tiger lead to 16-6 after a failed two-point conversion.

The Bulldogs would force an ETBU punt and would drive the length of the field before missing a 19-yard field goal - shifting momentum back to the Tigers. Neither team was able to find the end zone in the fourth quarter as the game concluded with a 16-6 final.

Caden Bosanko led the Bulldogs with 72 yards on 17 carries and finished 10-of-25 passing for 130 yards with a touchdown. Following a fourth quarter injury, sophomore Bryce Nirider (Katy/Needville) would make his collegiate debut finishing 5-of-9 for 57 yards and two interceptions.

Cameron Welch (New Braunfels/Canyon) - who entered Saturday ranked 11th in NCAA Division-III in punting - punted six times for 270 yards with a touchback. Welch increased his punting average to 42.7 yards per punt - just shy of the program record of 43.0 yards per punt set by Harold Anderson in 1962.

James Gipson (Castroville/Medina Valley) led the Bulldogs with eight tackles on Saturday.

The Bulldogs will travel to Brownwood for their final road game of the 2023 season next Saturday, October 28, to take on the Howard Payne Yellowjackets at 1 PM. All streaming and stat links can be found on tlubulldogs.com.