No. 9 Texas A&M Commerce Lions Football Team Looks to Rebound Against Lock Haven

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The No. 9 Texas A&M University-Commerce football team hosts an unfamiliar foe this week, as Lock Haven University’s Bald Eagles pay a visit on Hall of Fame and Former Letterwinners’ Day.
 
WHO: Lock Haven University at Texas A&M University-Commerce 
WHERE: Commerce | Ernest Hawkins Field at Memorial Stadium
WHEN: 6 p.m. on Saturday, September 29
RECORDS: The Lions are 3-1 overall and 2-0 in the Lone Star Conference. Lock Haven is 1-3 overall and 1-0 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference’s East Division.
RANKINGS: Texas A&M-Commerce is ranked No. 9 in the AFCA Coaches’ Poll and No. 14 in the D2Football.com Media Poll. Lock Haven is unranked.

LIVE AUDIO: Lion Sports Network — KETR 88.9 FM, Commerce (http://www.ketr.org)
LIVE VIDEO: http://LionAthletics.com/Live
LIVE STATS: http://statbroadcast.com/events/statmonitr.php?gid=tame
TICKETS: Available in the Lion Sales and Service Box Office in the Field House from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, by calling (903) 468-8756, or visiting http://WeAreLionsTix.com

TIME TO REBOUND
•  The loss against CSU-Pueblo was only the Lions’ ninth regular season loss to a Division II opponent in the six seasons under head coach Colby Carthel. Four of those came in the first season of his tenure.
• The 10-point margin of defeat is the largest against a Division II opponent in the regular season since Week Three of the 2013 season.
• That loss to West Texas A&M was followed by a six-point loss to Midwestern State. That is the last time the Lions have lost consecutive regular season games. 
• The Lions have not lost to an unranked opponent since 2014.
• Over the last four seasons, in a game following a regular season Division II loss, the Lions have won by an average of 40.25 points.
 
ALL-TIME AGAINST THE BALD EAGLES
•  This is the first-ever meeting between these two schools in football.
• The Lions have never played a PSAC team in football.
• The Lion women’s basketball team played Lock Haven in the season opener of the 2006-07 season, winning 65-50 in Orlando, Fla. The Lions would advance to the Elite Eight that season. From that team, Kanani Marshal is being inducted into the Lion Athletics Hall of Fame today.
• The only other contest between the Lions and a team from the Keystone State came in 1954, when the ET men’s basketball team took a 79-52 win over Geneva College from Beaver Falls in the NAIA Tournament Round of 16 in Kansas City. Hall of Famers Jim Miller, Clarence Lynch, and Shelby Metcalf were the leaders of that Lion squad.
 
NIFTY FIFTY
• Head coach Colby Carthel now ranks fifth in A&M-Commerce history in coaching wins with 52 wins.
• He is now only 11 wins behind Lion and LSC legend J.V. Sikes, who sits in fourth place with 63 wins.

 
SENIORS ON PACE TO SET SCHOOL RECORD
• The 2017 senior class established the school record for wins in a four-year period with the victory in the National Championship Game with 42 games won in a four year span.
• The 2018 seniors now rank third in school history at 36-8 with a guarantee of eight more games in the season. The 1951-54 seniors also won 36 games, but had fewer losses than this year’s group.

 
MARTINEZ CONTINUES TO CLIMB SCORING CHARTS
• Kicker Kristov Martinez scored seven points vs. Pueblo, with two field goals and a PAT.
• The graduate student from Edinburg is now 5-for-7 on field goal attempts and 11-for-11 on PAT attempts in 2018,
• He is now 59-of-78 on field goal attempts in his career, which is tied for 10th in Division II history. The Division II career record is 82 made field goals.
• West Texas A&M’s Sergio Castillo has the LSC record with 62 field goals.
• Martinez is the Division II active career leader in made field goals, and is tied for third in all NCAA divisions behind LSU’s Cole Tracy (77) and Wisconsin’s Rafael Gaglianone (63). He is tied with Toledo’s Jameson Vest (59). 
• LSU’s Tracy is actually a Division II transfer from Assumption (Mass.), where he won the Fred Mitchell Award in 2017. 
• Martinez is on the preseason watch list for the Mitchell Award.
• For his career, Martinez has made 187-of-194 PAT attempts and is the Division II active career leader. Oklahoma’s Austin Seibert is the all divisions active career leader with 246 made PATs. Martinez is fourth in all divisions behind Seibert, Ohio State’s Sean Nuernberger (206), and North Dakota State’s Cam Pederson (196). Toledo’s Jameson Vest is tied with Martinez.
• In terms of overall scoring, Martinez (364 points) is chasing Castillo (437 points), and former Harlon Hill winner at Texas A&I Johnny Bailey (426 points) for the all-time LSC scoring record.
 
HARRIS AWARD NOMINEE IS TOP TACKLER
• The Lions’ leading tackler in senior Brucks Saathoff also leads the Lone Star Conference.
• The San Antonio native is averaging 12.0 tackles per game through four contests.
• This ranks ninth nationally and he is tied with Angelo State’s Grant Ashenbeck for the LSC lead.
• In 2017, Saathoff was the Lion leader with 101 tackles, averaging 6.7 stops per game.
• For his career, Saathoff has 257 tackles, which is the leading mark for the Lions.
 
NEEMA’S NEW CAREER HIGH
• Neema Behbahani had a career game in the loss to CSU-Pueblo, notching his most tackles in a single game in his career.
• The Plano Senior High product had 15 tackles, including 2.5 tackles for loss. 
• For the season, the junior has tied for the second-most tackles on the squad, making 27 stops with 3.5 tackles for loss and a fumble recovery.
• He is one of three linebackers averaging over five tackles per game.
 
“BIG MIKE” BEHIND THE LINE
• Michael Onuoha (pronounced uh-no-ha) has been a menace in the backfield.
• The senior from Edmond, Okla., ranks eighth nationally in sacks per game, averaging 1.38 sacks per contest. He has 5.5 sacks for losses of 30 yards through four games.
• His sack against CSU-Pueblo was also a forced fumble, recovered by Saathoff.
• He is 13th nationally in tackles for loss, with 8.5 tackles for losses of 40 yards. 
• Prior to the season, Onuoha was named an honorable mention All-American and second team all-region pick by Don Hansen’s Football Gazette. He was also a first team all-Lone Star Conference pick.
• “Big Mike” ranked seventh in the LSC with 12 tackles for loss and recorded 56 tackles in the 2017 season.
 
HALE’S HUNDRED HITS A THOUSAND
• Lion running back Carandal Hale ran for 101 yards in the win at Eastern New Mexico and capped that night with a 32-yard touchdown carry.
• With his performance in Portales, the sophomore from Greenville rolled his career odometer over the 1,000-yard mark, 
• He enters the Lock Haven game with 1,047 career yards
• Hale is the 37th Lion back to roll past 1,000 career rushing yards.
• He is the third Lion running back to go over 1,000 yards in the Carthel era, joining Richard Cooper (3,174 yards from 2013-16) and Theo Wofford (1,306 yards from 2014-15).
• Only seven Lions have gone over 2,000 yards in their careers.
 
MARQUIS MEETS MILESTONE MARK
• Senior wide receiver Marquis Wimberly achieved a milestone in the CSU-Pueblo game,
• With his final catch of that game, he now has 83 career receptions for exactly 1,000 yards.
• Senior tight end Vincent Hobbs is the other Lion receiver trending towards 100 career receptions.
• He has 89 receptions for 1,083 yards, putting him 11 catches away from 100.
• At this point in program history, 14 Lion receivers have had 100 career receptions.
• Of those 14, four have played under Colby Carthel.
 
RAMSEY’S RETURNS REAP REWARDS
• Sophomore return man and defensive back Dominique Ramsey is the Lone Star Conference’s Special Teams Player of the Week for his performance in the CSU-Pueblo game.
• The Converse Judson product scored the opening touchdown of the game for the Lions in Saturday’s game against CSU-Pueblo with a 72-yard punt return for a score in the first quarter.  
• He had five punt returns for 106 yards for a 21.2 yards per return average, and also had an 18-yard kickoff return. 
• On defense, he was in on five tackles and had a pass breakup.
• Ramsey ranks in the top 25 nationally this season with a 14.5 yard per punt return average and is one of only two players in the LSC with a punt return for a score this year.
 
HOT START ON DEFENSE
• The Lions have not allowed their opponents to score in the first quarter of a game this season.
• A&M-Commerce has a 38-0 advantage over its opponents in the first quarter.
 
TAKE THAT AND LIKE IT
• The Lion kicking game has been spectacular as A&M-Commerce ranks fourth nationally in both kickoff return defense and punt return defense, and 11th nationally in net punting.
• Of the Lions’ 22 punts this season, not a single one has had a return attempted by the opponent. Eight have been downed inside the opponent’s 20-yardline, five have been fair caught, and four have travelled over 50 yards.
• The Lions average an even 40 yards net per punt.
• Lion opposition has averaged only 12.0 yards per kickoff return.

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