BELTON, Texas – The Albright football team was within eight points of defending national champion and No. 1 ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor at halftime before the Cru put together a big second half to defeat the Lions 56-15 on a hot Saturday evening in Texas.
 
The loss drops the Lions to 0-2 on the season as they faced the Cru for the second-straight season. Meanwhile, Mary Hardin-Baylor begins their 2018 title defense with an opening day win as they unveiled their national championship banner in pre-game.
 
Senior quarterback Jimmy Lahay went 13-of-24 passing for 124 yards through the air, while throwing a pair of touchdowns and interceptions. Lahay missed last season's contest with the Cru due to a hand injury. Sophomore Todd Shelley also saw time under center again as he passed for 47 yards on 3-of-8 attempts. Sophomore Tony Thorpe led the Lions in rushing yards as he tallied 71 yards on 21 carries, and caught three passes for 13 yards. Senior Mike Jordan led the Lions in receiving again as he registered 55 yards on three catches, while catching his fourth touchdown in two games.
 
The Lions were forced into a three-and-out to begin the game, and the Cru wasted little time to get on the board as they needed just five plays to make it 7-0 off a 23-yard passing touchdown from Ryan Redding to Michael Stimpson. The teams would then trade a pair of punts before the Cru picked off Lahay at the 5:11-mark of the first quarter, and ran the return back to the Lions 23-yard line. From there, it took two quarterback runs from Redding to make it a 14-0 lead for the Cru.
 
 Lahay would then be intercepted again on the ensuing drive for the Lions which led to a 47-yard field goal for Mary Hardin-Baylor to open the second quarter. Following another Albright punt, the Lions nearly got the ball in great field position as freshman defensive back Chris Holbrook forced a fumble that was eventually recovered by the Cru. However, the Lions forced a UMHB punt to set Albright up at their own 44-yard line. With Shelley under center for the drive, he found senior wide receiver Zack Miller for 26 yards before Thorpe would run 20 yards to give the Lions first and goal from the Cru six-yard line. The drive would end with a 24-yard field goal from sophomore kicker Chris Knop, the first of his collegiate career. Albright then continued momentum as junior linebacker Nate Steffen stripped Redding of the ball and recovered it at the Lions 29-yard line following a long kickoff return. Albright would use a long 17-play 66-yard drive that went 6:33 long to score their first touchdown of the game with 34 seconds left in the half to make it a 17-9 game following a blocked extra point. The key play came on a fake punt on 4^th and 11 inside Lions territory as Albright picked up 18 yards. Lahay then would pick up a 3^rd and 16 as he found Jordan for 17 yards. He then came up clutch on third down again to cap the drive as he found freshman Lucas Roselli for a 14-yard touchdown.
 
Both teams failed to score on their first drives of the second half as the Cru punted, while the Lions failed to convert a fourth down. UMHB would score on its next drive to take a 24-9 lead at the 7:48 mark of the third quarter. The Cru would capitalize on a Lions three-and-out on the ensuing drive to march down again, and extend its lead to 31-9 at the 3:53-mark of the third quarter. Lahay then responded by leading an 11-play drive that was capped by a 26-yard touchdown pass to Jordan to make it a 31-15 game on the final play of the third quarter. The Lions would go for two on the PAT, but that would end up being disastrous as All-American safety Jefferson Fritz intercepted Lahay and ran it back for a two-point defensive PAT.
 
The Cru used good field position from a Lions onside kick attempt to score on two plays behind a 47-yard touchdown run to make it a 40-15 game at the 14:46-mark of the fourth quarter. Things then continued to go worse for the Lions as sophomore Malik Bootman had the ball punched out on the ensuing kickoff to set UMHB on the Lions 22-yard line. Albright would hold the Cru to a field goal to make it a 43-15 game, but were unable to get anything going on offense as they were forced to go three-and-out again. UMHB then added two more touchdowns to bring the final score to 56-15.
 
On defense, sophomore Sam Viera posted his third-straight double-digit tackle performance dating back to the final game of 2018 as he tallied 11 tackles (five solo) and one sack. Freshman Kyle Komanitsky recorded eight tackles (four solo), while senior Trevan Harris-Dorman made six tackles and grabbed the Lions first interception of 2019. Steffen finished with three tackles, 1.0 TFL, and a forced fumble along with the recovery. The Lions matched the Cru with 17 first downs, while UMHB held a 375-274 advantage in total yards. The Cru used three different quarterbacks in the game with all three scoring a touchdown.
 
Albright will take its bye week coming up before returning to action on Saturday, September 28^th versus Delaware Valley at 1 p.m. for the annual homecoming game.