KINGSVILLE, Texas – Jordan Thomas scored four total touchdowns, including the game-winner on a 34-yard touchdown pass from Cade Dyal with a minute to go to lead the Texas A&M-Kingsville football team to a 38-34 victory over the William Jewell Cardinals on Senior Night at Javelina Stadium in Kingsville, Texas on Saturday evening.
Thomas finished the day with five receptions for 95 yards, caught three touchdowns and also returned a kickoff 100 yards for score. Dyal fired three TD passes and totaled 262 yards through the air while completing 25-of-35 passes.
On defense, Caleb Valentine piled up 11 tackles, including one-and-a-half sacks. Trevor Moses contributed nine stops.
FIRST QUARTER
The first quarter was all Cardinals. On the second play from scrimmage, Brad Strauss found Trejuan Mask for a 54-yard touchdown and Dalton Dye's PAT put the Cardinals ahead 7-0. Dye also made a 24-yard field goal with 8:54 on the clock and the quarter ended with William Jewell ahead 10-0.
SECOND QUARTER
The Javelinas settled in on defense and kept the Cardinals' offense under wraps for most of the period. After Dye made his second field goal, this one from 28, Thomas bolted down the sideline with the ensuing kickoff, putting the Javelinas on the board with 56 second remaining in the half. Unfortunately, the Cardinals drove down the field quickly and called on Dye for a 44-yard field goal which he made as time expired. The Javelinas went into the half down 16-7.
THIRD QUARTER
The first points of the second came from Julio De La Garza, who hit a field from 37 yard out. A drive later, Dyal tossed up a prayer and Nico Brown came down with it for a 37-yard gain, placing the Hogs in the red zone. A few plays later, Dyal tossed a seven-yard lob to Thomas who came down with it for his second score and the PAT gave the home team a one-point edge.
FOURTH QUARTER
On the last play of the third quarter, Brown caught a 40-yard pass to put the Hogs on the visitor's 22 to begin the fourth quarter. After two penalties on the Cardinals bumped the Hogs to the five-yard line, Dyal found No. 6 in the back of the end zone for the second time in the half. The TAMUK offense soon got the ball back and moved to another TD. This time, they traveled 49 yards on four plays and Jeff Carr capped the march from five yards out, making the score 31-16.
A quick response by the Cardinals followed and they covered 69 yards in only three snaps, the last of which resulted in a 50-yard sprint to paydirt by Strauss. A quick three-and-out followed by the Javs and Strauss soon had his offense in rhythm in again. This time, they covered 81 yards and moved within two when the quarterback connected with Mask for a 17-yard score. Mask then crashed over for the two-point conversion and both teams were even at 31, but the visitors were soon handed another chance.
A fumble on the ensuing kickoff turned the ball over to William Jewell on their opponents 43 and, after they moved 15 yards, Dye booted through a 45-yard field goal for a 34-31 advantage with 1:56 to play.
After getting the ball on the TAMUK 31, Dyal quickly hit Kyle Plum for 11 and Devin Millburn for 14. He then completed passes to Aaron Dilworth and Plum to move the chains again and set up the game-winning connection. William Jewell's last gasp saw them move into the red zone, but a sack by Valentine and an incompletion on the last play enabled the Hogs to hold on.
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