Featured photo by Josh McDaniel
After a scoreless first half, the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs pulled away in the second for a 24-0 victory over the ULM Warhawks Saturday night in Tiger Stadium.
Louisiana Tech improved to 4-2 overall with its third straight victory and 2-0 in the Sun Belt. ULM dropped to 0-6 and 0-2.
The game was the teams’ first meeting since 2000.
Louisiana Tech Head Coach Sonny Cumbie credited defensive coordinator Luke Olson for the shutout.
“Just extremely proud of Coach Olson and our defensive staff and defensive players to get a shutout,” he said. “It’s really hard to do that. The takeaways that they were able to create, I mean, just the preparation that our players had all week.”
The Bulldogs struggled on offense the first half. Blake Baker was intercepted on Louisiana Tech’s first possession. The Bulldogs also missed field goals of 46, 51 and 39 yards. The latter was blocked with 2 seconds left in the half.
But the defense forced the Warhawks to punt four times and had a turnover on downs. ULM had just 42 yards in the first half.
“I think our players, in the first half offensively in particular, were a little frenzied, and maybe that had something to do with it from the standpoint of the excitement of this rivalry being renewed, the excitement of playing in this game,” he said. “And then I think our guys really settled down, and I thought it was an unbelievable atmosphere.”
Cumbie said he didn’t need to to be too critical at halftime. The Bulldogs just focused on what they needed to do in the second half.
“Our players started to play the way that they’re coached to, and they started to execute,” he said. “Our quarterback saw the field better. We ran the football better, and we rose up together.”
Taeden Rogers intercepted a pass by ULM’s Aidan Armenta on the first play of the second half.
Louisiana Tech then took the lead for good on its first possession. The Bulldogs drove 62 yards in six plays. The drive began with a 30-yard pass from Baker to Marcus Calwise Jr. and ended with a 5-yard run by Sergio Snider.
The Bulldogs went 66 yards in 11 plays for their second touchdown of the third quarter. Baker hit Calwise for 27 yards to the ULM 16. Tech converted a fourth-and-1 at the 7 on a 5-yard pass from Baker to Calwise. Baker completed a 2-yard pass to tight end Brayden Bockler for the touchdown on the next play.
Bockler caught another 2-yard pass from Baker in the fourth quarter. That capped a five-play, 65-yard drive. Kaegan Kent’s 21-yard field goal closed the scoring after Kam Franklin intercepted a pass at the Tech 24 and returned it 66 yards.
ULM has some success offensively in the second half, but Louisiana Tech limited the Warhawks to 231 total yards (165 passing, 66 rushing).
The Bulldogs had 387 total yards.
Baker completed 15-of-21 passes for 178 yards. Calwise had eight catches for 119 yards. Andrew Burnette had his best game of the season with 118 yards on eight catches.
Alonzo Jackson Jr. led the defense with seven total tackles. Kolbe Fields and Jadon Mayfield had six each.
Note: Louisiana Tech Associate Director Strategic Communications Drew Parsley contributed to this report.