Box Score UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – Saginaw Valley State football celebrated a 41-24 victory over Texas A&M-Kingsville to improve to 2-0 on Saturday night. The Cardinals (2-0) scored with explosive plays, special teams, and defense to pull away from the Javelinas (0-2) to earn the win.

"Excited to get a win. It's tough to win football games in college football. Kingsville was a really good team and they played hard. They did a really good job and did a lot of things that presented us issues, so I am glad to see our guys respond," said head coach Michael Engle. "We did a really good job getting two non-offensive touchdowns, and just loved how the guys responded and played and found a way to win a football game."

Wide receiver JT Webber had a second stellar performance with 132 receptions yards on three catches with a touchdown. The Meijer Player of the Game caught a 79-yard touchdown pass from Connor Wolf that pushed the Cardinal lead to 34-10 in the second quarter.

SVSU got on the board after a blocked punt was recovered by Jamison Pelt at the two for the first score of the game.

TAMUK responded with an eight play drive that stalled just inside the Cardinal 20, forcing a 33-yard field goal that trimmed the lead in half (6-3) with 11:23 on the clock.

The Javelinas got the ball back with a pick of Connor Wolf on a 3^rd-and-16 near midfield. Texas A&M-Kingsville's offense used nine plays to score and take a 10-6 lead with 6:14 left in the opening quarter.

The Cardinals recaptured the lead on the very next play from scrimmage when Wolf found Zarek Zelinski for a 74 yard touchdown pass that put SVSU back on top 13-10.

Braden Hill extended the Cardinal lead with a 20-yard touchdown reception from Wolf in the opening two minutes of the second quarter to push the score to 20-10.

Christian Ellison picked off Javelina quarterback Mills Dawson and returned it down the sideline for 66 yards and a score to widen the gap to 17 points (27-10) with 12:30 remaining in the half. It was Ellison's first interception since the 2023 season.

Webber recorded his touchdown reception two drives later to increase the lead to 34-10 in the closing four minutes of the half. The score would remain there as the teams entered the locker room at the break.

The game slowed in the third quarter with the lone touchdown coming in the final two minutes when Wolf recorded his fourth touchdown toss with a shovel pass to Drew Eisenbeis from six-yards out for the final Cardinal touchdown of the game.

TAMUK scored two times before time expired after two touchdown drives in the final 6:20 of play to put the score at its final, 41-24.

The SVSU defense was active on the night with Adom LeDuc recording a strip sack of Dawson that was recovered by SVSU's Josh Williams at the end of the first half. James McDonald stripped Javelina running back Levi Fontenot for SVSU's fourth turnover of the game. Sean Hodges tallied the third takeaway earlier in the quarter with a pick from inside the red zone to hold TAMUK at 10 points.

"Last week we didn't get any turnovers and we put a big emphasis on creating turnovers and getting the ball back. I thought the defense responded and did a tremendous job," said Engle.

Wolf finished the game 13-for-20 for 326 yards and four touchdowns. Zelinski totaled 74 yards and a touchdown with his lone reception. Hill tallied two catches for 36 yards and a score. Freshman Eisenbeis tallied his first career touchdown on the shovel pass play in the third quarter.

Jalen Edwards, Adom LeDuc, Tommy Offer, and James McDonald had a team-best six tackles to lead defensively. Junyoung Chung, Carrington Pryor, Lucas Valencia, and Brandon Lewis had five stops. Ellison added three tackles and a breakup to his stat line, while Hodges also recorded three tackles.

Special teams was highlighted by Zach Hornbacher blocking the punt that Pelt recovered and scored on. Teagen Lenderink also was a perfect 5-for-5 on PAT kicks and recorded another five touchbacks on kickoffs.

UP NEXT: The Cardinals hit the road for the first time this season as they travel to Midland to face Northwood in the Axe Bowl on Saturday, September 12 at Noon ET.