ADA, Okla. – East Central University bottled up visiting Arkansas-Monticello behind a dominant defense that frustrated the Boll Weevils with a 16-0 shutout victory.

The shutout was ECU's first of an opponent since a 69-0 thrashing of Southern Nazarene in 2015, a span of 60 games. The win improved ECU's record to 7-3 on the year and kept them alone in fourth place in the Great American Conference. The Tigers limited UAM to just 164 yards, a season-low in the GAC. The Boll Weevils only once moved inside the ECU 45. That resulted in a missed 55-yard field goal.

"Our defense played lights out," ECU Head Coach Kris McCullough  said. "I'm so proud of our team for finding different ways to win. It wasn't pretty, but we have to celebrate every win you get."

ECU's Alexis Lopez had a spectacular day, delivering on field goals of 34, 35, and a school-best 53. He leads the GAC with 16 field goals, which broke the previous school record of 14 set in 2002 by Cody Finney.

"Our special teams played well too," McCullough said. "They have us good field position all day, and Alexis was huge for us all day today, scoring 10 of our 16 points."

The Tigers did finally reach the endzone in the fourth quarter. Jawan King's 15-yard run with 7:07 left was the final score.

Miles Davis had his best game, carrying the ball 14 times for 88 yards. He also caught four passes for 28 yards to finish with 116 yards of total offense.

On defense, there were many standouts. The Tigers finished with eight tackles behind the line of scrimmage and four quarterback sacks.

Devon Roush had 11 tackles to lead the Tigers. He also made 2.5 tackles behind the line of scrimmage for five yards. Kevon Curry had eight tackles, 1.5 tackles for losses, and 1.5 quarterback sacks. The other players who had sacks or assisted on a sack were Michael Onwuzurike, Ameer Muhammad, Yemi Oyesanya, and De'Undre Potts.

The Tigers limited UAM to 55 yards of passing and had interceptions by Orlando Brown and Cody Alexander.

"We will enjoy this win tonight and get to work on that team down South tomorrow," McCullough said.