Lindenwood defeated Arkansas State 17-5 Saturday night in a defensive-minded Mid-South clash.

With the win Lindenwood improves to 4-0 in the conference.

Dominance from the Lions in the scrum, as well as consistent execution in the kicking game allowed, Lindenwood to win what turned out to be a game decided by stingy defense and consistent field territory.

In a defensive battle, field territory played a massive role for the outcome of the match. Lindenwood pinned Arkansas State back with deep bombs from Rhys Smith and Shiven Dukhande, as well as consistently finding touch on penalty opportunities.

Lindenwood struck first when Cian Darling received a perfectly executed offload to put the Lions 5-0.

Shiven Dukhande had his try shortly after when the Lions swung the ball out wide after numerous punishing runs softened the Red Wolves fringe defense. Rhys Smith connected on the tough conversion to take a 12-0 lead.

With the first half ending, the visiting team found a spark when Nick Hardrict, II was yellow-carded for an unsafe tackle. Instead of taking the makeable penalty kick, the Red Wolves elected to play the ball. The Lion defense shut them down and re-took possession to close out the half.

The second half played on like the first half where defense and territory were huge for Lindenwood.

Inside Center Rhys Smith hit a well-executed 50/22, while Shiven Dukhande kept Arkansas State back behind their 22 meter line with up-and-under kicks, as well as effective chip kicks.

Arkansas state did have an opportunity to get their first try when an ill-advised penalty by Lindenwood allowed the Red Wolves a lineout opportunity deep in the Lions territory. The Red Wolves mauled it over and it was 12-5 midway through the 2nd half.

Lindenwood wasted no time to answer when given the opportunity. A lineout five meters from the line saw Lindenwood move the ball quickly to the backs where Brendan Mason threw a long cutout pass to Hardrict. He powered over to make it 17-5, and that's how the game ended.

“I was very confident that our defense would find a way to seal the win," said Lindenwood's Evan Conlon. "Our defense is a great example of the heart that this team has. Everyone puts in the effort during the week, and it really shows come match time.”

“Pure heart and attitude is how our defense has played," added Shiven Dukhande. "We have allowed only five points in 160 minutes of match time vs Arkansas State. We stay composed and stick to our process. We want it more than anyone on that field and we won’t let anyone get in our way, regardless of mistakes, we will always get back up and come back harder.”

"The kicking game today was tough," added Brendan Mason.." The wind was blowing in our face the first half so we had to keep the ball in hand more often than we wanted and couldn’t get the distance we were looking for with our kicks. In the second half Rhys and Shiven were able to put us deep in their half by flipping the field and giving us a good setup."

Lindenwood did struggle to move the ball smoothly so that will be something to work on. But at 4-0 Lindenwood is in good position to win the conference.

Life beat Davenport 40-7 behind three tries from No. 8 Orrin Bizer.

Lindenwood's March 23 clash with Life looms large.