East Central runs away with 38-21 win in Heritage Bowl
Dec. 4—The fifth annual Fun Town RV Heritage Bowl turned into a party for the East Central University (Okla.) Tigers, who dominated Texas A&M at Kingsville 38-21 Saturday at Community National Bank & Trust Stadium to put an exclamation point on one of the best seasons in the school's history.
"We started fast and took care of business," said Tiger coach Kris McCullough, who watched his team take a 17-0 first quarter lead and put the game away midway through the third quarter with a 21-0 run that gave ECU a 38-7 lead with 6:49 left in the third.
"I couldn't be happier for our university and our great alumni to be part of a historic season and see how far we have come," he said.
In what was thought to be a close, tight game between two teams that had played each other 17 times got out of control quickly.
If you didn't know better you would have thought the Tigers were in a hurry — no, make that a mad rush — to get into the endzone.
They scored two touchdowns on two plays, taking a total of 14 seconds off the clock.
ECU's Elijah Thibodeaux set up the first touchdown when he blocked Jacob Cavazos' punt on the fourth play from scrimmage.
Tailback Miles Davis scored on the Tigers' first play on a 14-yard run that took six seconds off the clock to give ECU a 7-0 lead with less than two minutes into the game.
The Tiger defense held again and forced a punt from the Javelina 9-yard line, a punt that was shanked and bounced out of bounds at the 36.
Davis scored on the first play again, taking eight seconds off the clock and Alexis Lopez nailed his second PAT for a 14-0 lead in only 14 seconds of possession.
Lopez kicked a 25-yard field goal with 1:43 left in the first quarter to make it 17-0. The Javelinas got on the board when Cavazos, who does double duty as the teams quarterback and punter, connected with Craig Clemons, who made a highlight tape catch in the endzone for 14-yard TD.
The Tigers roared back, scoring three more touchdowns without an answer.
Nemier Herod, who was the Tigers' leading rusher this season, scored on a one-yard run to cap a 13-play, 75-yard drive with 56 seconds left in the half and Davis struck again with a five-yard TD run with 8:54 left in the third to finish an 11-play, 75-yard drive that gave the Tigers a 31-7 lead.
Quarterback Kenny Hrncir ended the scoring for ECU with a 23-yard pass to Jake Berry after another long drive of 74 yards to all but end the game with 6:49 left in the third.
Davis had his best game of the season — a three touchdown afternoon while rushing for 127 yards on 23 carries. The Tigers ran all day and carried the ball 50 times for 208 yards.
Hrncir threw the ball just 14 times but was efficient and productive, completing eight passes without an interception for 147 yards, averaging 18.3 yards per completion.
It was simply ECU's day.
