SHERMAN, Texas – Damian Gomez's 346 total yards of offense and five touchdowns helped the Southwestern University football team end a three-game skid with a 40-29 dismantling of Austin College on Saturday.
Gomez, a 6-foot-1 and 195-pound junior quarterback from McAllen, Texas, tied Fred Hover for the fifth-highest single-game completion percentage when he went 18-for-26 against the Roos for a 69.2 percent completion percentage,
The 18 completions led to 270 yards through the air and two touchdowns while he was also able to use his legs and scamper for an additional 76 yards on nine carries and three TDs.
Southwestern (3-5, 2-4 ASC) fell behind early as Austin College (1-7, 1-5 ASC) scored from 73-yards out on a Tiger Dietz run on just the second play from scrimmage for the game.
Gomez then put the Pirates on his shoulders and took off for a joy ride that saw the Pirates put up 33 unanswered points that went from the 9:36 mark of the first quarter all the way through to the 5:44 mark of the third quarter.
The grind-em-out style of offense that Southwestern utilized worked to perfection with all six touchdowns being on drives of 6-10 plays with first and last being 10-play drives each.
Gomez's first TD at the 9:36 mark in the first quarter came on a run from 8-yards out to cap off a 10-play, 75-yard drive covering 4:37.
Four punts from Austin as well as a pair of punts and a lost fumble from Southwestern took up much of the next 15:00 of game clock, but Gomez was able to eventually right the ship and get his teammates back on course capping off an 8-play, 85-yard drive with a 15-yard TD pass to Ethan Powell.
After Austin turned the ball over on downs on its next drive, Gomez went to work again in an attempt to score before the halftime horn sounded.
Southwestern took over on its own 49-yard line with 1:59 to go before the half and six plays later, Gomez scored on a 120yard jaunt with 0:21 to go in the half. Charlie Fournier's extra point was good making it 20-7.
The Pirates rode the momentum from that touchdown into their first possession of the second half for a 7-play, 75-yard scoring drive in just 3:35 of the third quarter. The drive was capped off when Christian Reeves scored from 250yards out after catching a beautiful pass from Gomez. Fournier's extra point made it 27-7.
A forced three-and-out caused Austin to punt on its first possession of the second half and Southwestern and the Pirates immediately went to work on offense again as Reeves capped off a 9-play, 71-yard drive covering 4:07 of action with a 1-yard plunge followed by Fournier's kick to a 26-point lead and blow the game wide open at 33-7.
Peyton Kelly would connect with Traelyn Marsh for a 6-yard touchdown pass to end the scoring drought for the Roos, but Gomez would cap off the Pirates' scoring attack with the team's third 75-yard drive and second 10-play, 75-yard drive of the game when Gomez rushed for a 12-yard TD.
Austin would tack on a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns, but it was too little too late for the Roos to have any chance of making a comeback.
As you can imagine, Southwestern led the majority of the offensive categories including a 29-14 advantage in first downs as well as total offense (526-346), passing yards (270-135), rushing yards (256-211) and time of possession (28:21) just to name a few.
Jaquon Marion had a stellar outing rushing the ball 23 times for 147 yards while Powell led the way in receiving with eight catches for 156 yards and one TD.
Reeves finished the day with 10 carries for 33 yards and one touchdown while catching one pass that turned into a 25-yard TD completion. Fournier added an outing f=of 4-for-5 on extra point attempts.
NEXT UP
The Pirates will have to overlook the fact that next Saturday's matchup with Texas Lutheran will not only be Senior Day, but it will also be Southwestern Homecoming. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. CDT in.