SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Sept. 21, 2024) – The Northern Arizona University football team traveled to San Antonio, Texas, to face No. 15/18 ranked Incarnate Word on Saturday night, falling by a score of 38-14. With the loss, NAU drops to 2-2 on the season to end non-conference play, while the Cardinals improve to 2-2.
NAU scored first and the teams found themselves locked at 14-14 before the Cardinals rattled off 17 unanswered points. Turnovers troubled the Lumberjacks, as they fumbled four times, all recovered by UIW. In the redzone, NAU was 0-for-3 while the Cardinals were 3-for-3. On fourth down, the Lumberjacks were 2-for-7.
Northern Arizona has 439 yards of total offense compared to 412 to Incarnate Word, including 166 on the ground and 273 through the air.
Ty Pennington completed 20 of his 35 pass attempts for 247 yards and a touchdown.
Bryzai White hauled in 63 yards on four catches, followed by
Ta'ir Brooks who had 54.
Darvon Hubbard rushed for 85 yards on 12 carries. Michael Carreon,
Ammon Allen and
Tommy Ellis each had six tackles to lead the team.
"Obviously, we are disappointed in the outcome. I'm disappointed at our lack of execution. That's a good football team over there, and when you play a good team, you have to block, tackle and take care of the football," said head coach
Brian Wright. "You have to convert on fourth down and take advantage of field position, all of the things that we didn't do tonight."
The Lumberjacks fumbled on their opening drive, but quickly turned the tides when
Alex McLaughlin and
Brandon Wong teamed up for a sack to force the Cardinals to turn the ball over on downs. Northern Arizona took over on the 50-yard line, and it took just one play for
Darvon Hubbard to rush 47-yards for the score, his second touchdown of the season. After
Marcus Lye's extra point attempt, NAU took a 7-0 lead.
The Cardinals evened the score after an 11-play, 47-yard drive that ticked 3:29 off the clock ended in a 13-yard receiving touchdown. At the end of the first, the score was tied 7-7 and NAU had 127 yards of total offense compared to 53 for UIW.
The NAU defense started the second quarter by forcing another three-and-out. The offense took care of its job, retaking the lead when Pennington found
Tay Lanier for a 37-yard touchdown pass as NAU pulled ahead 14-7. It marked the first career receiving touchdown for Lanier and his second overall.
Facing 3
rd and 19 on the UIW-16, the Cardinals fumbled, and it was recovered by NAU's
Bobby Nivens, allowing the 'Jacks to take over on the UIW-24, but they were not able to capitalize and turned the ball over on downs.
DJ VanHook came up a huge tackle for a loss of 32 yards, but the Cardinals tied the game up at 14-14 after a 35-yard rushing touchdown that capped a seven-play, 81-yard drive. Right before the half, UIW recovered its second fumble of the day and took a 17-14 lead going into the half after a 40-yard field goal, outscoring NAU 10-0 to end the half.
At the half, NAU had outgained the Cardinals 223-to-142 on total offense and held UIW to 1-of-7 on first down, owning the time of possession battle 18:06 to 11:54.
Adding insult to injury, the Cardinals recovered forced its third fumble of the game on a punt return and recovered it on the NAU-10 yard line. UIW was then able to find the endzone once again, this time on a 10-yard rush to pull ahead 24-14.
Northern Arizona was facing 4
th & 3 on the UIW-3 when they dropped a pass in the endzone, allowing the Cardinals to take over on downs. From there, the Cardinals needed one play to rush 97 yards for a touchdown.
UIW would find the endzone one more time in the fourth quarter, scoring on a 32-yard pass to extend the lead to 38-14.
NAU returns to Findlay Toyota Field at the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome on Saturday, Sept. 28 to open Big Sky Conference play against Sacramento State for Family Weekend. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. Mountain Standard time.
