Lindenwood football (1-2, 1-0 OVC/Big South) roared back from a 21-point deficit to notch their first win of 2025, stunning Charleston Southern (0-3, 0-1 OVC/Big South) with a dramatic comeback on Saturday. The Lions flipped the script in the second half, erasing what looked like an insurmountable hole and turning it into a statement victory to open conference play.
“No coach likes to go down that early, but I do believe adversity reveals character. I’m incredibly proud of our guys fight today,” said head coach Jed Stugart. “It’s not easy digging out of a 21-point deficit especially on the road, and they revealed a lot about themselves today. Now we have to continue to build on it.”
This year’s matchup against the Buccaneers went quite differently than the matchup in St. Charles a year ago where the Lions notched the game’s first 20 points and held that lead and went on to win 29-14 behind five field goals from kicker, Logan Seibert.
The win was also the Lions first win in Charleston South Carolina after having lost their first ever matchup between these two schools in 2023, 24-10.
Glantz does it all
Nate Glantz was spectacular on Saturday afternoon. He finished the day 20/34 for 246 yards and a touchdown through the air while also adding 24 yards on the ground and three rushing scores. His only touchdown pass was a 12 yards strike to Rico Bond to give Lindenwood their first lead of the game at 28-21.
The Charleston Southern defense had no answer for Glantz’s legs once Lindenwood got inside the 10 yard line as Glantz had rushing scores from eight, 10 and seven yards out. Glantz now has four rushing touchdowns through three games in 2025 after he had six in 2024.
Glantz never wavered even when his team faced what seemed like an insurmountable deficit at 21-0 as he led five touchdown drives throughout the game including three straight in the fourth quarter to put the Buccaneers away.
Glantz was in full control of the Lindenwood offense in the second half as he orchestrated the comeback leading touchdown drives of six plays 61 yards, three plays 29 yards, seven plays 80 yards and seven plays 36 yards.
The Lindenwood offense also outgained the Buccaneers 254-190 in the second half after Charleston Southern controlled much of the first half and held a significant 252-75 yards advantage in the first half.
The wide receiver room stepped up
With John Anthony sidelined with injury and Bond blossoming into a star Lindenwood was going to need some more guys on the outside to step up and make plays for Glantz. Jalen Smith and Drew Krobath were the guys to answer that call.
Smith, a redshirt sophomore from Shiloh Illinois, hauled in six passes for 96 yards to lead the Lions in receiving, including a huge 30 yard catch that set up Glantz’s second rushing touchdown of the game. Smith now has eight catches for 119 yards in three games after only having nine catches for 103 yards all of last season. His performance makes him a true deep threat weapon for Glantz on the outside and is still looking for that first career touchdown in the black and gold.
Krobath, after a fantastic week one against St. Thomas was quiet last week, but made a big impact against the Buccaneers and he caught five passes for 79 yards, as much like Smith, the fellow redshirt sophomore in Krobath has already equaled his receiving totals from all of 2024 in just three games here in 2025.
The only touchdown pass for the Lions was caught by the blossoming star in the redshirt freshman Bond whose final stat line read five receptions for 53 yards and one score as Dusty Hovorka, Lindenwood’s offensive coordinator, pushed all the right buttons in the win in getting the ball to his playmakers on the outside.
Defense comes up clutch
A week after the Lindenwood defense forced four App State turnovers and gave their offense a shot to win the game the Lions came out flat on the defensive side of the ball as the Buccaneers had their way on their first three drives as they quickly opened up a 21-0 lead capped off by a one play 52 yard touchdown run by Hakeem Watters.
However, whatever was said or was changed on the sidelines lit a fire under the Lion defense as the final nine drives for Charleston Southern went: punt, punt, end of half, punt, interception, punt, punt, missed field goal, touchdown. The Lion defense held the Buccaneers to just 219 total yards on those nine drives after they’d racked up 178 on the three consecutive touchdown drives.
The Lindenwood defense also continued to wreak havoc in the turnover department as they forced three big turnovers that all led to Lindenwood touchdowns.
The first came on Charleston Southern’s second drive of the third quarter with the Lions still trailing 21-7 and the Buccaneers in Lion territory, Zolten Osborne heaved a pass down the field and Sam Owens jumped up and intercepted the pass which gave the ball back to Glantz and the offense who went down and scored a touchdown to cut the lead to 21-14.
The second big play the defense made in the second half was after Lindenwood had just tied the game on Glantz’s third rushing score on the afternoon, Charleston Southern finally started to put a drive together and had first and goal at the Lions 10, the defense walled up and stuffed the Buccaneer offense and forcing them to bring out their kicker, Zach Gordon, to attempt a go-ahead field goal in which he missed from 28 yards out keeping the game tied.
The final big momentum changing play the Lions defense made was following the Glantz to Bond touchdown on the ensuing kickoff Tajay Passmore punched the ball out from Watters on the return and Andrew Baumgart pounced on it giving the Lions back-to-back possessions in which they would go down and Jaren Rhodes would run it in from one yard out to put the nail in the coffin in the Lions 35-28 win.
Jacob Waller was one of the defensive standouts for Lindenwood who finished with 17 total tackles, a career high, including 13 solo to earn him OVC/Big South defensive player of the week honors. The redshirt junior from Bellevue, Iowa also had 1.5 tackles for loss and is averaging 10.0 tackles per game, which ranks first in the OVC-Big South and 15th nationally.
Eric Gant was the only other Lion with 10+ tackles and he finished with 11 and also had an emphatic hit on a Buccaneer receiver that led to a pass breakup.
It was a gritty win for the Lions, with many players stepping up to assume bigger roles and fill voids. Meanwhile, players like Steve Hall and Anthony battled injuries, as did the offensive line, which had to undergo major reshuffling due to the injuries experienced in that room.
Lindenwood finally returns home for its 2025 home opener on Saturday, Sept. 20, against Stony Brook, with the opening kickoff at 6 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ and can also be listened to on 89.1 KCLC.
