Bryce Hayes
SHREVEPORT, LA — The Texas Lutheran football team (8-1, 7-1 SCAC) earned a 46-23 road victory over Centenary College (4-5, 4-3 SCAC) at Atkins Field in Shreveport, Louisiana, on Saturday. With the win, the Bulldogs clinched at least a share of the 2024 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) championship. The championship is their fourth in the SCAC, winning three championships in four years during their previous stint in the conference.
Also with the win, Texas Lutheran is off to its best start through nine games since 2014’s 8-1 start, a season that also saw the Bulldogs make the NCAA Division-III Tournament. Texas Lutheran has scored 40+ points in four of their last five games.
Texas Lutheran set a number of career-highs on the ground as running back Ryker Purdy (New Braunfels/New Braunfels) set a new career-high with 121 yards rushing, Kibreante Williams (Victoria/Victoria West) had a career-high 61 yards rushing and quarterback Caden Bosanko (San Antonio/East Central) anchored the Bulldogs offense with his second four rushing touchdown game of the season on 45 yards rushing. Bosanko leads the SCAC with 13 rushing touchdowns and enters the final week of the regular season three rushing touchdowns shy of David Wehmeyer’s single-season rushing touchdown record of 16 set in 1971.
Bosanko finished 15-of-26 for 259 yards and a 61-yard passing touchdown to Caleb Camarillo (San Antonio/Southside). Camarillo led the team with a career-high 164 yards on four receptions while Purdy added two catches for 47 yards.
On special teams, kicker Joaquin Rodriguez (San Antonio/Smithson Valley) made three field goals from 35, 43, and 32 yards in addition to five extra points to account for 14 points on Saturday. This is the third time in his career he’s made at least three field goals in a game after making four last October against Howard Payne. Punter Cameron Welch (New Braunfels/Canyon) showed why he is one of the best punters in the country, averaging 48.5 yards on two punts on Saturday including a 54-yard long.
Sean Blanks (Angleton/Angleton) led Texas Lutheran with seven tackles. Tyler Ward (Woodway/Bishop Louis Reicher) finished with six tackles including two tackles for loss while Grayson Kowalski (Sabinal/Sabinal) ended with five stops.
Texas Lutheran’s offense had 21 first downs, 227 yards rushing, 259 yards passing and 486 yards of total offense.
TLU started the scoring with a two-yard rushing touchdown from Bosanko before Rodriguez would add a 35-yard field goal to give TLU a 10-0 lead early in the second quarter. Centenary would get on the board in the second quarter following a 52-yard rushing touchdown. The two teams would begin trading scores through the second and third quarters as Bosanko would run for his second touchdown and find Camarillo for his lone passing touchdown of the day. TLU would begin to pull away late in the third as the Bulldogs followed up Rodriguez’s 43 yard field goal with a safety and Bosanko’s third touchdown of the day to bring the game to a 35-20 score.
Following a Centenary field goal, TLU would score two more times to bring the game to its final score via Rodriguez’s final field goal of the day and Bosanko’s fourth rushing touchdown.
Texas Lutheran returns to Seguin for their Senior Day and regular season finale against Southwestern at Bulldog Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 16. Kickoff is set for 1 PM and will be broadcast on TLU’s YouTube Channel, TLU+, along with KWED 1580 AM.All streaming and live stats links can be found on tlubulldogs.com.
For more information on Texas Lutheran football, follow the Bulldogs on X (Twitter) and Instagram (@TLU_Football) and as always you can find updates on all Texas Lutheran athletics on tlubulldogs.com and all official TLU social media channels (@tluathletics on X (Twitter,) @tlu_athletics on Instagram, and @tlubulldogs on Facebook).