Ryan Berhardt pulls down a pass from Bennett Bauerle in first quarter action Friday that was good for 19 yards. His reception kept a drive alive that resulted in the Longhorns’ first touchdown of the game. Bernhardt added a touchdown just before half when he was on the receiving end of a pitch from Dylan Dreiling on a hook-and-ladder play good for a 40-yard score. (Johnson Publications photo)
Despite tight defense from this St. Pat’s defender, Chase Rowley hauled in a perfect strike from Bennett Bauerle to score the Longhorns’ first touchdown. (Johnson Publications photo)
Longhorns even record with 35-28 win over St. Pat’s
After taking a 20-7 halftime lead over the St. Pat’s Irish Friday, Dan Lenners’ squad got put to the test, finding themselves down 21-20 after a pair of Irish touchdowns in less than 10 seconds with more than a quarter of football left to play.
The Longhorns built some character, responding just two plays later with a 52-yard touchdown by Kobe Clevenger to put the Longhorns back up for good.
They killed the next three possessions by the Irish, two by fumbles and one by interception. The second fumble set up the Longhorns’ final score with Clevenger going 44 yards in two carries to put the Longhorns up 35-21.
St. Pat’s added a late touchdown against the Longhorns’ younger players to make the final score 35-28.
Lenners said he saw a lot of improvement from game one to game two, but added his team “still has a long ways to go.” Take away a punt return, a pick-six, and some broken tackles and it could have easily been 35-7, he said.
The Longhorns played well on defense with the exception of some breakdowns tackling which led to St. Pat’s second score, Lenners said. The Longhorns missed a tackle for a loss and missed three other tackles to allow the score.
The offense made a lot of strides, he added. They suffered from some alignment issues in their loss to Gothenburg but got them fixed against St. Pats.
For the night, the Longhorns picked up 410 yards of offense while limiting the Irish to just 223 yards.
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