Jackson State's Leilani Armenta becomes first woman to score in HBCU football game
Armenta kicked three extra points in the team's 40-14 win over Arkansas Pine-Bluff
Jackson State kicker Leilani Armenta hit three extra points in the Tigers’ blowout win over Arkansas Pine-Bluff on Saturday.
Armenta kicked a PAT in the second quarter and added two in the fourth quarter as she became the first woman to score in a game for an HBCU in an FCS-level college football game.
The California native joins players like Vanderbilt’s Sarah Fuller and New Mexico’s Katie Hnida as women to score in a college football game. Fuller became the first woman to score points in a Power Five game when she kicked two extra points in 2020 against Tennessee. Hnida was the first woman to score points at the top level of college football in 2003 after Ashley Martin was the first woman to score points in an FCS game when she kicked three extra points for Jacksonville State in 2001.
Haley Van Voorhis became the first woman to play a position other than kicker in an NCAA football game earlier this season. Van Voorhis is a defensive back for Division III Shenandoah University.
Armenta is also a defender on the Jackson State soccer team. Her mother, Brandy, said after the game that the family didn’t expect Armenta to get into the game Saturday.
"We did not know it was going to happen and we are super excited," Leilani's mother, Brandy Armenta, said. "We all started yelling because we had no idea. My daughter had no idea she would be kicking in the game today. We are beyond ecstatic."
The game wasn’t Armenta’s first appearance of the season. She had done kickoffs in 2023 against Bethune-Cookman because of injuries to other kickers on the roster but the team went for two after its three touchdowns in a 22-16 win. Armenta has been working her way back from a torn ACL she suffered during Jackson State’s soccer season.
The win makes Jackson State 6-3 in coach T.C. Taylor’s first year as head coach. Taylor took over for Deion Sanders after Sanders left for Colorado.
