Waxahachie, TX

September 27, 2018 | Blake Cochran

Saturday, September 29th the Southwestern Assemblies of God University (SAGU) football team will have their first home football game of the season. Ottawa University from Surprise, Arizona , will visit Waxahachie in a huge Sooner Athletic Conference game. A win against Ottawa would put SAGU near the top of the conference standings. The Lions defense will have to come ready to play again as the Spirit scored 51 points in a win over Lyon College last week. SAGU held one of the prolific offenses in the nation in Langston University to a scoreless first half last Saturday and will need nothing less against Ottawa. Ottawa lost to Langston University in a high scoring game 56-63 on Saturday, September 8th.

The Spirit have experimented with two quarterbacks but have handed the ball to Austin McCullough who is getting more and more comfortable with the offense. McCullough is a 6’2, 170 sophomore from Ridgecrest, CA, with ten touchdowns in three games for almost 1000 yards. He is completing 61.5% of his passes and averaging over 300 yards per game. They have done a similar situation at the running back position with Shamar Moreland and Marcelous Chester-Riley . Moreland has 232 yards on the ground and four touchdowns averaging 53.8 yards per game. Chester-Riley has put together over 200 yards as well as three touchdowns on the season so far. Receiver, Brandon McLaughlin is doing most of their damage in the area with having a touchdown in each of their four games, totals on the season consist of 341 total yards receiving for six touchdowns. Their defense is led by division-1 transfer Kenneth Steele Jr. , on the season who has 30 total tackles, 13 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks, and one safety.

If the Lions secondary can hold the air attack and the d-line can get pressure on McCullough they will force the Spirit to change up their game plan. If not this is going to be a high scoring game with Lions quarterback CJ Collins having big numbers last week, 351 yards and three touchdowns. Dotson, Northey , and Carr combined for 25 receptions, 325 yards, and three touchdowns; expect them to have another big game on Saturday. Christian Cross is going to have to be on his toes against this pass heavy team and hopefully come up with his fourth interception of the season. Marco Mathews and Tori Williams will come up with their 30th tackles on the season and cause McCullough to think twice about going towards the middle with these two leading the defense.

This is SAGU and Ottawa’s first matchup against each other and it should be a fun one to watch. The game will kick off at 12 pm and start the Lions home stretch to end the season. Four out of their next five games are in Waxahachie as they look to gain ground in the SAC race.

Southwestern Assemblies of God University is a private, Christian university located 30 minutes south of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in Waxahachie, Texas. The university was established in 1927, and now offers more than 70 associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees on campus or online. More information is available at www.sagu.edu