Usually, when you get a defensive touchdown, it bodes well for your chances of winning a big football game. Get two defensive touchdowns, and ... well, let's just the say the all-time winning percentage of teams with a pair of defensvie TD's is pretty darn high. To take it a step further, teams that combine two scores on defense, one on special teams, and another one-yard TD drive after a blocked punt, win about as often as birds can fly.

So it was for Lindenwood on Saturday, in a 41-10 blowout of visiting Evangel, as the Lions erupted for 27 unanswered points in the second half to take a big Heart of America Athletic Conference victory.

Leading 14-10 at the intermission, the Lions got the big play barrage going in the third quarter, with the first body blow coming on an Evangel punt blocked by freshman Liam Andrews. Sophomore wideout Leonard Durant scooped up the ball at the Crusader 25 and romped in for the touchdown, putting LU ahead by a count of 21-10. That was the Lions' second blocked punt of the day - freshman tailback McCray Harris had earlier set LU up at the Evangel one-yd. line with a block after the Crusaders' first possession had gone three-and-out. Durant barely missed a rare double, as he recovered that one, also, only inches from paydirt.

"Any time you block two punts in a game, good things usually happen," said LU head coach Patrick Ross, who saw his team's HAAC record over the last three seasons move to 20-5. "McCray is going to block a lot of them over the next four years, and Leonard is just one of those guys who is a playmaker. We're trying to think of ways to get him the ball in space, so I guess scooping up blocked punts is a pretty good one."

After Durant's TD, the Lion defense then landed a pair of crushing blows to the jaw on consecutive possessions early in the fourth quarter. First, junior cornerback Larry Gladney stole the ball from Crusader receiver Drew Coplin after a short pass play, then rolled 38 yards down the home sideline for a touchdown. Only a few minutes later, after a lengthy Evangel push into Lion territory, junior linebacker Derek Coxson's second interception of the game turned into one for the record books: a 100-yd. TD return down the visiting sideline, making it 34-10.

If the lights weren't officially out at the point, the party was certainly wrapping up - and sophomore QB Ben Kisner turned them out for good moments later, tossing his second TD pass of the game, this one from 36 yards out to junior Ricky Moore. Kisner enjoyed an outstanding afternoon, completing 13 of 17 pass attempts for 198 yards, with the other touchdown coming on a 35-yd. strike to senior Steven Kennedy only minutes into the game.

"It was nice to jump out on top right off the bat," said Ross of his team's six-play, 90-yd. blitz to open the game. "We go right down the field, then block their first punt and get the one-yard drive - it would be nice if the first five minutes of every game went 14-0 like that."

To their credit, the Crusaders battled back after that early uppercut, scoring on a short pass from junior quarterback Derek Rasmussen to freshman flanker Edward Sands late in the first quarter, and a 21-yd. field goal by freshman kicker Trevor Gies in the second.

The game was broken open by LU's defense and punt block unit after the intermission, but with all those possessions being taken off the board, the Lion offense clicked off only 42 plays from scrimmage - about 25 less than normal.

"We just didn't get to run that many plays from scrimmage, particularly in the second half," said Ross of the game's strange numbers. "We still averaged over six yards per snap, but it sure didn't seem like the offense was out there much."

As a result, the Crusaders won the yardage skirmish, 294-261, but wound up on the ugly end of the battle. Points always trump yards, and wins are always better than losses ... or as the legendary youth coach Charlie Brown often reminded Lucy when she would list his less than stellar numbers, "Tell your statistics to shut up."

The Lions, now 3-2 in the Heart and still battling to stay alive in the league title chase, will be on the road next weekend at Central Methodist, for a 2:00 pm kickoff against the Eagles in Canton, Mo.