Box Score
The Lindenwood football team earned another big victory during its transition season to the NCAA Division II level. The Lions stopped Texas A&M-Kingsville on a goal-line stand with 19 seconds remaining for a 41-35 victory. Andrew Helmick caught three touchdown passes to lead Lindenwood to the win over a program that has participated in the last two NCAA Division II playoffs.

The back-and-forth game started with the Lions jumping out to a 20-0 lead. Lindenwood forced turnovers the first two times the Javelinas touched the ball and that led directly to 10 points. The first score came on a Thomas McGowan 17-yard run, and that was followed by a James Neal 29-yard field goal. Later in the quarter, Neal kicked another field goal, this one from 41 yards out, and the Lions led 17-0 after 15 minutes.

The first time the Lions had possession in the second quarter, it took John Uribe two plays to take Lindenwood 92 yards. The first was a 68-yard pass reception to McGowan, and the next play was a 24-yard touchdown pass to Helmick. The rest of the half was all Texas A&M-Kingsville, though, as it scored three straight touchdowns to take a 21-20 lead into halftime.

In the third quarter, special teams helped turn the momentum back to the Lions. Helmick returned the opening kickoff 50 yards to set Lindenwood up in Texas A&M territory. Four plays later, Helmick caught a 31-yard touchdown reception to put Lindenwood ahead. Later in the quarter, Mike Bunton set Lindenwood's single-season punt return yards record when he returned a punt 77 yards for a touchdown. The Javelinas answered with a touchdown on their next drive that cut Lindenwood's lead to 34-28.

After trading punts, special teams came into play again early in the fourth quarter. Texas A&M-Kingsville recorded just a six-yard punt that gave Lindenwood the ball on Texas A&M-Kingsville's 35-yard line. Three plays into that drive, Helmick caught his third touchdown pass, this one from 24 yards out. Once again, TexasA&M-Kingsville was able to answer as it went on a 13-play drive that ended in a touchdown that made the score 41-35.

Lindenwood took over with 4:42 remaining in the game. On third-and-one early in the drive, McGowan found a hole and rushed for 37 yards down to the Texas A&M-Kingsville seven-yard line. Lindenwood rushed three straight times to force the Javelinas to use all of their timeouts, but a missed field goal attempt gave Texas A&M-Kingsville the ball on its 20-yard line with 2:18 left.

Texas A&M-Kingsville's final drive started with three straight incomplete passes. On fourth-down, it completed an 11-yard pass to keep the drive going. The Javelinas' quarterback completed four of his next five passes, and the Javelinas had first-and-goal from the Lindenwood seven-yard line. After an incomplete pass on first down, they rushed for five yards on second down, and were stopped at the one-yard line on third down. On the fourth-down play, Chris Howard and Christian Golder forced a two-yard loss on the rush to seal the win for the Lions.

Texas A&M-Kingsville had 506 yards of total offense, over 200 more than Lindenwood. The Lions rushed for 44 yards, a number hurt by allowing nine sacks, and 257 yards passing. The Javelinas had 165 rushing yards and 341 passing yards. The Lions overcome those numbers by having a +3 turnover margin and a big advantage in special teams play.

Uribe finished with 257 yards passing and three touchdowns. McGowan rushed for 90 yards and had 104 yards receiving. Helmick finished with 93 yards receiving.

Brock Reed led the defense with 11 tackles and he had two tackles for loss. Cody Fogle had 10 tackles, and Sean Gracy recorded seven tackles, three tackles for loss, and two sacks. Tyler Epstein had an interception, Nick Tepea and Gracy forced fumbles, and Dillon Hawkins and Joe Day recovered fumbles.

Game Notes: Lindenwood improves to 4-2 on the season, including 2-1 versus NCAA Division II teams … Texas A&M-Kingsville falls to 3-3 on the year … Bunton now has 372 punt return yards this season and three punt return touchdowns … the win for the Lions was the first all-time over a school that was receiving votes in the NCAA Division II national poll … head coach Patrick Ross won his 70th game as a Lion … the game was played in front of 9,700 fans, one of the largest crowds the Lions have played in front of.