LA Tech Bulldogs win 30-26 in season opener vs. South Alabama

LA Tech started off strong and came out with the 30-26 win in their season opener Saturday, September 1stat South Alabama. “We won,” said Head Coach Skip Holtz.”That’s first and foremost. I told the team in the locker room that 50 percent of the teams in the country will lose this opening weekend. We went on the road and found a way to win. It’s hard to win on the road. I don’t think we played really well. I thought there were some great individual performances and plays, but overall as a team, we weren’t great. We struggled to protect the quarterback early. I thought we ran the ball really well, but we had some turnovers offensively. We have to fix a lot of things on the offensive side of the football.”

Quarterback J’Mar Smith had a strong game throwing 2 touchdowns and the Bulldogs had 440 yards throughout the game. LA Tech threw for a total of 209 passing yards and rushed for 231 yards. In the first quarter at 8:41 Jaqwis Dancy ran 8 yards for a touchdown against South Alabama and Bailey Hale kicked for the extra point bringing the score 7-0. In the second quarter at 13:18 Jaqwis Dancy ran 1 yard for another touchdown and the score is now 13-0. At 7:54 South Alabama scored a touchdown and kicked an extra point bringing the score 13-7. With 34 seconds left in the half Bobby Holly caught a 1 yard pass from J’Mar Smith for a touchdown. Once again Bailey Hale’s kick is good for the extra point and the scoreboard runs up 20-7 at the end of the first half.

After halftime the Bulldogs came back into action in the third quarter at 11:42 with Bailey Hale kicking a 23-yard field goal bringing the score 23-7. At 6:59 the Jaguars strike back with a 3-yard pass touchdown to bring the score to 23-13. In the fourth quarter at 8:18 the Jaguars have a 5 yard run touchdown and kick the extra point, the score is now at a nail biting 23-20. At 2:19 Adrian Hardy caught an 8 yard pass from J’Mar Smith for the Bulldog’s final touchdown of the game and Bailey Hale kicked for the extra point bringing LA Tech to a score of 30 and USA still with 20. Nearing the end of the fourth quarter at 1:11 South Alabama comes at the Bulldogs with a 4 yard run touchdown and the kick was blocked bringing the game to the final score of 30-26.

The Bulldogs were able to pull out the exciting win on the road against South Alabama and are looking forward to the rest of the season. This season opener win is a great confidence booster for the team and makes them want to work even harder in practice to prepare for upcoming games and rivalries. LA Tech will be back into action in Joe Aillet Stadium this Saturday, September 8that 6 pm against Southern. Come out and support the Bulldogs as they work to keep a winning streak going for this 2018 season.