Published: September 10, 2008 01:35 pm      

A&M-Kingsville clubs East Central

Ada — Coming off a blowout loss at Division 1-AA Sam Houston in the season opener nine days earlier, the East Central University football team was hoping to use Saturday’s home opener against Lone Star Conference South opponent Texas A&M-Kingsville as the first step on the road toward the school’s first winning season in four years.

But instead of allowing themselves to be a four-lane bridge between Sam Houston and the Tigers’ Week 3 opponent, Division II power Tarleton State, the visiting Javelinas turned out to be just one big blue and white pothole.

Led by a senior quarterback — Billy Garza — making his first career start, the Kingsville offense shredded the ECU defense for 444 yards on 71 plays, and the Javelina defense intercepted ECU quarterback Marcus Johnson three times — including two in the red zone — en route to a convincing 44-14 blowout that put a serious crimp in any plans the Tigers had for a winning season this fall.

ECU (0-2) has lost its first two games by a combined 102-28, and the rebuilt Tiger defense appears to have lost any momentum the 2007 unit gained during its journey from first-half futility to respectability over the final five games of the season. TAMUK averaged 6.3 yards per play, Garza threw for 184 yards and two touchdowns and ran for two more, and a fleet of running back carved up the ECU front seven to the tune of 253 yards on the ground.

Johnson and his receivers provided the only real spark for the Tigers all night. Critical mistakes and a swarming Javelina defense kept ECU to just one score in each half, however.

The 2007 Lone Star North Division Offensive Player of the Year, Johnson was 27-for-40 for 270 of ECU’s 316 total yards, but he was sacked twice and ran his season interception total to five with the three picks Saturday.

ECU’s running game, meanwhile, was virtually nonexistent. In fact, Kyla Palacol was the team’s leading rusher with 27 yards on one carry — a fake punt in the second half that set up ECU’s second touchdown — to account for all but 19 of the Tigers’ yards on the ground from 23 carries. No. 1 tailback Alex Woodley had minus-7 yards on five carries in his first start of the season, and ECU’s tailback rotation of Woodley, Charles Huffman, Collin Avery and Larry Carter combined for just nine yards on 16 carries and had just one run all night of more than three yards.

TAMUK dominated the first half and took a 7-0 lead on Garza’s 18-yard strike to Jareko Taylor in the back of the end zone with 9:19 left in the first quarter, but the Tigers drove 52 yards on their next possession and trimmed the deficit to one on a 29-yard pass from Johnson to sophomore Tyrone Gibbs.

The scoring catch was the second in as many games for Gibbs, who beat double coverage and made a sensational grab over John Reeves in the back left corner of the end zone with 5:50 left in the quarter. Gibbs finished with a game-high 81 yards on five receptions.

ECU missed a chance to tie the game when Corey Dozier’s extra point attempt was wide right, however, and the Javelinas answered with 24 straight points over the next quarter and a half.

Garza drove the TAMUK offense 80 yards in nine plays after Gibbs’ touchdown, and Ray Hudson’s 19-yard burst off left tackle with 1:42 left in the opening quarter made it 14-6 heading to the second. The Javelinas tacked on 10 points in the second period on a Garza quarterback sneak to cap a 78-yard drive and a 21-yard field goal by Christian Brom to make it 24-6 at the break.

ECU missed an opportunity to climb back into the game after the third Kingsville touchdown. Keewan King — who returned four kicks for 126 yards — brought Brom’s kickoff after Garza’s touchdown back 42 yards to the Tiger 48. Five straight Johnson completions to five different receivers gave the Tigers a first-and-goal at the 10, but an illegal procedure penalty followed by a dead ball personal foul against offensive tackle Jay Reaves pushed the ball back to the 30.

On the next play, Johnson tried to hit Blake Barnes in traffic over the middle at about the 5, but the pass was picked off by Stuart Moffitt and returned to 20. Barnes suffered a knee injury on the play and spent the second half on crutches in street clothes on the sideline.

After the interception, the Javelinas drove to the ECU four in just four plays — including a 19-yard pass from Garza to Damien Couthren and a diving catch by Clavens Charles for 25 more. But the drive stalled at that point, and TAMUK settled for Brom’s short field goal.

ECU’s defense finally got a stop on the Javelinas’ first possession of the second half, but Nigel Cooper fumbled the ensuing punt, and Eric John recovered for Kingsville at the ECU 38. Six plays later, Garza’s second quarterback sneak of the game from a yard out put the Javelinas up 31-6.

Johnson and the ECU offense answered with a nice 80-yard drive featuring passes of 24 and 16 yards to Gibbs and capped by Huffman’s tough three-yard run to make it 31-14 with 5:42 left in the third quarter, but TAMUK answered with a 46-yard scoring drive of its own capped by Ryan Lincoln’s 20-yard scamper on a reverse, and ECU’s final two threats of the night both ended in the shadow of the Javelina goal posts.

Johnson ran or passed on eight of the nine plays following Lincoln’s touchdown, driving the ECU offense 62 yards to the TAMUK 7 before his swing pass intended for Huffman was intercepted by Tyrrell Herndon and returned to the ECU 47 to set up the Javelinas’ final touchdown — an 18-yard pass from Garza to Couthren with 13:46 to play.

ECU took the ensuing kickoff and again drove deep into Kingsville territory, but that drive ended when Johnson’s fourth-down pass from the Javelina 11 fell incomplete with 8:51 left.