Mavs Stumble, Lose to UNO 44-7

It was a perfect fall afternoon in Arlington, TX at Mavericks Stadium to watch a football game. The University of New Orleans rolled in to town to take on the University of Texas at Arlington in a club football game. The New Orleans Privateers steam-rolled the Mavericks on the strength of a second quarter explosion and the arm of quarterback Chris Brady.

The Mavericks never could get anything going on offense. For most of the day, Mavericks quarterback Chris Mercado was running for his life, and, in fact, sometimes he took off for a positive gain. Both Elijah Fuller and Jason Griffin were also unable to get going. The Mavericks ended the first half in the negative in total yards. Nevertheless, in spite of the anemic offense, the Mavericks were tied at zero at the end of the first quarter.

It was the second quarter when things got ugly for the Mavericks. At 13:29 left in the second quarter, Brady tossed a fade in the corner of the end zone to receiver Dustin Feagley. Feagley came down with the ball for a 15 yard touchdown pass. The snap was low on the PAT, and the Privateers missed the extra point leaving the score 6-0.

The following drive was more of the same for the Mavericks. An intentional grounding penalty on Mercado as he was trying to avoid a sack put the Mavericks on their 4 yard line. A bad punt put the ball on the 27 yard line for the New Orleans offense. From there, it didn’t take the Privateers long to score. Following a penalty on the Mavericks, the Privateers had 1st and 5. Two plays later, Brady hit receiver Josh Giambelluca across the middle for his second touchdown pass with 10:16 left in the half. The PAT was good, and the score was 13-0 New Orleans.

On the following drive, UTA, once again, did not get anything going. Starting at their own 8 yard line following a terrible kick off return, they suffered three straight incompletions before being called for an illegal formation on fourth down while trying to punt. The penalty put the ball at the 4 yard line, and punter Matt Funk didn’t get a good punt off. At the end of the punt, there were offsetting personal foul penalties which resulted in an ejection for a player on each team. New Orleans started their drive at the Mavericks 24 yard line.

After a run for no gain on first down, Brady hit his receiver over the middle at the 10 yard line, and as he was getting extra yards, he fumbled the ball. New Orleans recovered the ball at the Mavericks 1 yard line. On the next play, New Orleans running back Robert Jones dove in from the 1 yard line. The PAT was good, and the Privateers held a 20-0 lead with 7:51 left in the half.

The Privateers were not done for the half. Just three minutes later they scored again. Following another unsuccessful Mavericks drive they got the ball back at the Mavericks 48 yard line. One play later, they UNO scored on a 48 yard touchdown pass. Brady got the ball to his receiver at the 30 yard line after a Mav whiffed on a interception attempt and the receiver ran completely untouched the end zone. After the PAT, the score was 27-0 UNO with 4:20 left in the half.

UNO wasn’t done scoring in the half. Following an interception of Chris Mercado by Giambelluca, the Privateers set up at the Mavericks 9 yard line. However, confusion began on how the officials were to handle the play clock. The officials misunderstood thinking they were to continue to run the clock in the event of a big lead. Therefore, they continued the play clock leaving UNO with little time to score. The Privateers were able to line up and kick a 26 yard field goal just before the end of the half for a 30-0 halftime lead.

In the second half, the Mavericks showed a spark coming out of halftime. All day, UTA struggled with kick off returns, therefore, they turned to kicker/receiver Matt Funk. Funk took the opening kickoff in the second half, shook off a would-be tackler, and burst through the return coverage returning the kick to the UNO 15 yard line. Following the kick off return, on the first play, Mercado found Funk, of all people, in the end zone for the Mavericks only touchdown pass. Then, Funk kicked the extra point to cut the lead to 30-7, and accounting for all 7 points scored for the Mavericks. Further, Funk kicked a field goal in the first game for the Mavs only points in that game. Funk accounted for all 10 points that the Mavs scored against the Privateers this season.

In spite of the spark that the Mavs showed coming out of half time, the game went back to being controlled by the Privateers. UNO added two more touchdowns to set the final score at 44-7.

As for the play of his team, coach Robert Green pointed to quarterback Chris Mercado. “The kid’s [quarterback Chris Mercado] got heart. He’s one of the few,” he said after the game. Coach green went on to highlight highlighted the play of receivers Kashif Williams, Marcus Williams and Matt Funk on offense for the season.

About receiver/kicker Matt Funk, Green said, “If I had 10 more like that [Funk], we’d be fine.”

The game with UNO was the last game of the season for the Mavericks although Coach Green expressed his wish to have another game. The Mavs expect to hold a couple of scrimmages later this year including a game against a team from Mexico in the Spring. The Mavs will also welcome to new players in the Spring to help continue to build their program. The Mavs finished the season 1-3 with losses to UNO (twice) and Concordia College and a victory over South Alabama last week.