KINGSVILLE, Texas – With the clock ticking down late in the fourth quarter, and the Texas A&M-Kingsville football program clinging to a three-point lead, senior
Sean Landez (Mission, Texas) became the hero of the evening as he undercut a pass from UT Permian Basin's Kameron Mathis with mere seconds left and sealed the win on Saturday for Veterans and Military Appreciation Day at Pepsi Field at Javelina Stadium for the hosts at 24-21.
"We make things too exciting," said head coach
Daren Wilkinson. "It's great to get a win and it's bittersweet to sit in that locker room and look around at these seniors, half of which I recruited and half of which were already here and bought into what we wanted to do. This senior class worked their tails off.
"It's not easy when the breaks go against you, and in a lot of ways it isn't easy to bounce back on a Monday and grind it out through the week of practice to get a victory. Our guys did that for 11 weeks, and even though we didn't get as many wins as we wanted to, we learned a lot of valuable lessons about ourselves and about each other. These are memories they won't forget and I'm proud of them."
For the second consecutive year, the Javelinas (4-7, 2-6 LSC) got last-second heroics to get the win as the Falcons (2-9, 1-7 LSC) left Kingsville empty-handed, while 17 student-athletes were honored before the game to kick off the evening festivities.
UTPB struck first when Leroy Giles sprinted his way for a 17-yard score at the 8:46 mark of the opening quarter. The Hogs would respond early in the second when junior
Koy Detmer Jr. (Somerset, Texas) found freshman
Brandon Smith (San Antonio, Texas) on the back screen and the newcomer rumbled his way for the three-yard score.
Redshirt-junior
Aaron Dilworth (Corpus Christi, Texas) set up the score after he converted a 33-yard pass from Detmer Jr. earlier in the drive down to the UTPB goal line, leading to the punch in from Smith at 14:15.
The Hogs added to their total after Detmer Jr. found sophomore
Ryan Martinez (Kingsville, Texas) for 32 yards with 10:30 remaining in the half. The lead would disappear right before the half as the Falcons reciprocated the touchdown pass to a lineman as Hunter Bowers took the three-yard score from Kameron Mathis to even the count at 14 apiece with 21 seconds on the clock.
The visitors evened the count after Detmer Jr. was strip-sacked by Ryan Baker deep in Hog territory, leading up to the touchdown less than two minutes later. The score would remain at 14 each heading into the locker rooms despite a last-second trick play behind a handful of laterals that went into the books as a TAMUK fumble.
Senior kicker
Julio De La Garza (Brownsville, Texas) converted a 40-yard field goal at the 10:39 mark of the third quarter. The lead was erased less than five minutes later after Mathis strolled into the end zone for a one-yard rush with 6:10 showing on the clock.
The Hogs regained the lead near the start of the fourth after some acrobatics from Dilworth. A pass from Detmer Jr. to the back corner was initially deflected up in the air, but the Corpus Christi, Texas, native came down with the pass and the result was a 24-21 advantage favoring the hosts with plenty of time left on the clock.
The Falcons had a 4th-and-3 stuffed later in the quarter as senior
Devonte Williams (Houston, Texas) and redshirt-sophomore
Jalen Harrison (Crosby, Texas) put a stop to the rush attempt from Mathis.
Senior
Nick Pelrean (Houston, Texas) broke off a 58-yard run on the ensuing drive to put the Javelinas in the redzone but was stopped later in the drive at the UTPB five yard line. The following UTPB drive went three-and-out as redshirt-sophomore
Aaron Jackson (Houston, Texas) returned the punt for 42 yards back to the redzone yet again.
TAMUK's drive hit a snag as a penalty pushed the offense out to the Falcons' 25 while the drive was stopped at the seven yard line, giving the visitors 93 yards and 1:35 for one final opportunity to at least tie.
The Falcons got down to the Hogs' 30 with eight seconds to play and it came down to a desperation heave from Mathis that was picked off by Landez at the 19 yard line and gave the hosts the exclamation point to the weekend.
Detmer Jr. finished with three touchdowns on 249 yards, 127 of which went to junior
Tyler Wilson (Bay City, Texas) who brought down 11 catches. Dilworth finished with 73 yards on four catches for one score, while Martinez added 39 yards between his two grabs.
Pelrean finished with 112 all-purpose yards, just two shy of having 3000 on his career. He had 104 come on the ground following his 58-yard burst in the fourth.
Redshirt-sophomore
Tre'Michael Tutt (Channelview, Texas) led the defensive unit with 14 tackles, 10 solo, along with one forced fumble. Senior
Brandon Jones (Houston, Texas) capped his Blue and Gold career with seven tackles, two for loss, and 1.5 sacks alongside a forced fumble and eight QB hurries.
Junior
Caleb Valentine (Fulshear, Texas) was the other half of the line opposite Jones with nine tackles, 2.5 for loss, and half of a sack.
The 17 student-athletes honored before the game were Pelrean, Jones, Williams, De La Garza, Landez, redshirt-sophomore
Casey Rosellini (Cypress, Texas), redshirt-junior
Troy Irby (San Antonio, Texas), junior
Justin Lofton (Missouri City, Texas), redshirt-junior
Zach Davis (Sugar Land, Texas), senior
Payton Hendrix (Dallas, Texas), senior
Mando Castillo (Brownsville, Texas), redshirt-senior
Nico Brown (Topeka, Kan.), redshirt-senior
Jamal Foote (Houston, Texas), senior
Jeff Carr (Temple, Texas), senior
Roe Posada (Katy, Texas), redshirt-senior
Jacob Armstrong (Victoria, Texas) and senior
Torrey Thomas (Katy, Texas).
To keep up-to-date with Javelina football, follow the program on Facebook at /JavelinaFootball and on Twitter @JavelinaFB
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