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G-Men’s new era begins with 42-27 loss

In an upsetting loss this past Saturday against the Lamar Cardinals, the Tigers fell short with a score of 27-42 in Provost Umphrey Stadium.

“I thought we played well but the 3rd quarter was basically the quarter that hurt us. We kind of left our defense on the field a little too long and the we turned the ball over a great deal,” says head coach Broderick Fobbs.

With the G-Men receiving at the beginning of the game, they had an opportunity to score first. Unfortunately, their attempts were halted by two illegal blocking penalties and by an incomplete pass from quarterback DJ Williams to wide receiver Chad Williams.

After turning the ball over to Lamar, the G-Men’s defense worked hard to prevent the Cardinals from scoring, and it worked. The offense only had the ball for 89 sec- onds before LU’s Carl Harris fumbled the ball and GSU’s Dwight Amphy recovered it.

With yet another chance to score, Williams threw two back-to-back incomplete passes, forcing his team to punt the ball back to LU.

As the clock struck 11:42, quarterback Caleb Berry of LU threw an impressive 69-yard pass to wide receiver Mark Roberts sending him into the end zone. Watching the Cardinals score was more than enough motivation for the Tigers. In the next drive, quarterback Stephen Johnson delivered a successful pass to wide receiver Anthony McGhee securing them a first and goal. Following the play, fullback Dre Fusilier rushed for two yards, scoring the first touchdown of the season for the G-Men. The extra point attempt by Mark Orozco was good tying the game 7-7.

The remainder of the first quarter was disappointing for both teams, with numerous incomplete passes from GSU and Lamar, as well as three penalties for Grambling illegal blocking, pass interference and holding.

The G-Men were only able to gain a lead over the Cardinals in the duration of the game in the second quarter. After being unable to score a touchdown, Orozco kicked a field goal from the 41-yard line, making the score 10-7.

The Cardinals’ strong defensive tactics made it nearly impossible for the G-Men to score as they intended to in the second half of the game. Their final touchdown was in the fourth quarter with almost 11 minutes left on the clock.

Many of their failed attempts to come out on top were because of incomplete passes and penalties against them making it easy for Lamar to score. “I think it’s the youth,” said Fobbs. “There are times when they’re going to make mis- takes, that’s just part of the game. It’s our job as coaches to make sure we harp on it that it doesn’t happen again.”

The next match-up for the G-Men will be against the University of Houston. “I think they’re going to be itching to try to put some points on the board because of the outing that they had last week (substantial loss to UTSA) and we’re itching to get back out there and get stops defensively and on the offensive side of the ball we feel we’re much better than what we showed,” said Fobbs on playing Houston this week. “We’re just excited about getting another opportunity to get back on the field and play the game.”

The game will begin at 7 p.m. at the TDECU Stadium.