The Lindenwood football team put together good performances on both sides of the ball on Saturday in Kearney, Neb., which helped the Lions defeat Nebraska-Kearney by a 35-14 score.
 
The Lions defense held the Lopers to just 360 yards of total offense, and recorded five interceptions in the game. Lindenwood outscored Nebraska-Kearney 21-0 on points off turnovers, with one defensive touchdown and two other touchdowns on drives that started inside Nebraska-Kearney territory. Offensively, Lindenwood rushed for over 200 yards, and Alex Faddoul sparked a 28-0 second-quarter outburst after coming in as the backup quarterback.
 
The game started off bad for the Lions as they went three-and-out on their first possession, and Nebraska-Kearney went 55 yards to go up 7-0. The Lindenwood defense went the next 53 minutes without allowing a point, and the Lions took control of the game in the second quarter.
 
Lindenwood's first touchdown came on a 70-yard drive early in the second when Faddoul found Deantrell Prince for a 19-yard touchdown pass play. Three plays later, the Lions had the ball back after an interception, and Calen Campbell completed the drive with a four-yard rushing touchdown. After a Lopers punt, Lindenwood scored again. The big play was a 59-yard run by Campbell, which set Faddoul up for a two-yard touchdown run. The icing on the cake in the second quarter for the Lions was when Connor Harris intercepted a pass and returned it 18 yards for a touchdown.
 
After the Lions led 28-7 at halftime, neither team was able to score in the third quarter as both teams mostly traded punts back and forth. Midway through the fourth, Bakari Triggs came up with a redzone interception and returned it 51 yards. Lindenwood got the ball down to Lopers 29-yard line, and then Faddoul found Prince on a fourth-down play for the pair's second touchdown of the day. Nebraska-Kearney added a touchdown late in the game to make Lindenwood's final margin of victory 21 points.
 
Campbell led the offense with 144 rushing yards, and also had a 14-yard reception. He averaged 6.5 yards per carry on the day. Faddoul finished with 79 passing yards and 39 yards rushing, and he had two passing and one rushing touchdown. Prince had a team-high 48 receiving yards, all of which came on two touchdown plays, and Kendell Sparks caught six passes for 44 yards.
 
Defensively, Bakari Triggs and Ricky McCoy both had two interceptions, and Harris had the fifth turnover. Harris also had a sack and tied Wesley Thomas with a team-high nine tackles. Tanner Sobotka and Jonathan Harris also had sacks in the game.
 
Connor Harris also played a role on special teams. He took over placekicking duties and was a perfect five-of-five on the day on PATs, and he had 11 points after also scoring a defensive touchdown.
 
Game Notes: Lindenwood improves to 2-7 on the season and in the MIAA … Nebraska-Kearney falls to 1-8 on the year and in conference action …. Lindenwood now leads the all-time series by a 3-2 margin, and it became the first road team to win in the series history … the game featured the top two career tackles leaders at all levels of NCAA football in Lindenwood's Connor Harris and Nebraska-Kearney Tyke Kozeal. Harris went over 600 career tackles in the game and now has 608 in his career, while Kozeal had 14 tackles and now has 575 in his career …  Bakari Triggs now has five interceptions on the season, which is tied for fourth-most in program history for a season … Triggs also has 174 interception returns yards this year, which is second-highest at Lindenwood for a year … Kendell Sparks now has 58 receptions on the second, third-best in Lindenwood history and nine behind the school record … Lindenwood went over 200 rushing yards for the third time this season, and has been over 150 yards in six of nine games … the five interceptions in a game is the most for the Lions defense since also having five interceptions in 2013 against Missouri S&T … Lindenwood has 13 interceptions on the season, the most since having 14 in 2012 … Lindenwood has four defensive touchdowns this season, tying for the most since the 2011 campaign … the Lions will have their final home game next Saturday at 1:30 p.m. game at Missouri Southern.