(Seguin) — The Texas Lutheran Bulldogs come home this Saturday after a 35-20 upset of NCAA Division III 13th-ranked Trinity last Saturday in San Antonio.
The Bulldogs were led by Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Special Teams Player of the Week Tristan Smith and SCAC Defensive Player of the Week Troy Tomaselli. Smith blocked a punt and would go on to scoop and score a 12-yard touchdown for his first career touchdown to give the Bulldogs an early lead. Tomaselli finished with eight tackles, a forced fumble, a pass break up and an interception.
The victory was the first for TLU over a ranked opponent in five years and Bulldog head coach Neal LaHue said his team was ready to play after a season of close losses last year.
“A lot was made of our losing record last year and I’m really proud of the way our kids responded. We never lost focus. If you came and watched us last year in week nine and 10, you wouldn’t have known what our record was,” LaHue said. “Our kids worked their tails off, had great attitudes and I felt like we were in a lot of games last year. We just let (those games) slip away, we didn’t finish.
“We played with a lot of young guys last year and they worked extremely hard in the offseason. And then when you go through your fall camp, you get tired of hitting each other. So, they were excited about hitting different colored jerseys and they were ready to play.”
TLU will return to Bulldog Stadium in their home and conference opener on Saturday to take on the Centenary Gents. Centenary recently brought back their football program to campus. The Gents are competing in their first NCAA season since 1947. Centenary fell, 43-20 at home to Hendrix in their first game of the season last week.
This Saturday’s conference opener will kick off at 6 p.m. at Bulldog Stadium in Seguin.We’ll have the game for you on KWED. Our Bulldog pregame starts at 5:30 on Saturday afternoon where we’ll visit more with Coach LaHue on AM 1580. This weekend’s game will also be simulcast on the TLU+ YouTube Channel.