Box Score

The Lindenwood football team won its fourth straight contest on Saturday afternoon with a 70-24 victory over Culver-Stockton. The Lions have now won 26 consecutive regular season games at Hunter Stadium in St. Charles.

Lindenwood broke out its big plays against the Wildcats, with six touchdowns being scored from 30 yards or longer. All three areas of the game also scored as the Lions scored touchdowns passing, rushing, on a punt return, a fumble return, and an interception return.

The Lions jumped out to a 28-7 lead after the first 15 minutes of play. Therman McGowan was the star of the quarter with back-to-back touchdowns. With the Lions leading 7-0, he returned a punt 80 yards to put Lindenwood up by 14. After Lindenwood got the ball back on a punt, McGowan took the first handoff and scored on a 48-yard touchdown run.

In the second quarter, the Lions stretched their lead to 49-17. Andrew Helmick continued his recent hot streak with his 10th receiving touchdown of the season. The exclamation on the half was a 70-yard interception return touchdown by Nick Tepea. Lindenwood scored its 49 points in the half despite having the ball for less than seven minutes.

Lindenwood extended its lead by 14 more points in the second half as it outscored the Wildcats 21-7 for the final two periods. All three Lions scores were on the ground from Marvin Byrd, David Ortega, and Gabe Caine. The touchdown by Caine was the first of his career.

Lindenwood finished the game with 433 yards of total offense. The Lions had 313 yards on the ground, the seventh-most in school history. Culver-Stockton compiled nearly 400 yards of offense, but Lindenwood forced six turnovers in the game.

Byrd finished the game with 119 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Tim Celestine, Caine, and McGowan all finished with over 50 yards rushing.  Tim Celestine and Helmick each had a team-high 50 yards receiving and a touchdown. John Uribe completed four-of-five passes for 107 yards and two touchdowns.

Lindenwood's final touchdown came from Chris Howard who had a 46-yard fumble recovery, and Howard also led the team with 10 tackles. Other interceptions came from Malcomb Jones and Mike Cobb, and other fumble recoveries were by Brock Reed and Cody Fogle. Donald Collier, Cody Reider, and Reed all had forced fumbles. Reider was one of four players with a sack, and he had a team-high 1.5 tackles for loss.

Game Notes: Lindenwood improves to 7-2 on the season, while Culver-Stockton falls to 1-8 … the game was the last game of the season for the Lions versus a NAIA program; Lindenwood went 4-0 on the season against NAIA teams … Lindenwood defeated Culver-Stockton for the sixth straight time … the 70 points were the most this season by Lindenwood and the fifth-most in school history … the Lions now have six punt return touchdowns this season with three each from Mike Bunton and Therman McGowan … John Uribe passed 2,000 yards passing for the season, the fourth Lindenwood quarterback to hit that mark for a year.