Stephen F. Austin
Nicholls
Lumberjacks Rally Past Colonels, 28-24
10/10/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
Stephen F. Austin 28, Nicholls 24
Homer Bryce Stadium | Nacogdoches, Texas
Records: SFA (1-5, 1-3 SLC); NICH (0-5, 0-3 SLC)
Up Next: at Southeastern Louisiana | Saturday, Oct. 10 | 7 p.m.
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Trailing by 10 with 10 minutes to play, Stephen F. Austin rallied for a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns, including the game-winner with 26 seconds remaining, as the Lumberjacks toppled Nicholls 28-24 at Homer Bryce Stadium.
SFA notched its first victory of the season, improving to 1-5 on the year and 1-3 in Southland Conference play, with Nicholls falling to 0-5 overall and 0-3 in conference play.
“I’d rather win ugly than lose pretty,” said head coach Clint Conque following the game. “We faced a lot of adversity today – a lot of which was self-inflicted – but we finally found a way to win a game. We weren’t as focused as we needed to be in the first half, but we finally found that resilience in the second half and hopefully this will be a springboard for the second half of the season.”
The Lumberjacks overcame four fumbles in the game – two of which were fumbled into the endzone and recovered by the Colonels – and another which came at the start of the second half. The fumble bug bit both teams at inopportune times as Nicholls lost three fumbles in the game, including on the kickoff following the go-ahead score to seal the game for SFA.
For the game, the Lumberjacks piled up 458 yards of total offense on 80 plays, including 295 yards on the ground. After struggling in the first quarter, giving up 170 yards of offense, SFA’s defense recovered to hold Nicholls to just 186 for the remainder of the game as the Colonels finished with 356 total yards on 56 plays.
The ‘Jacks were led by solid rushing performances by Loren Easly and Zach Conque as the duo each surpassed the 100-yard plateau. Easly carried 31 times for 148 yards and a touchdown, giving the true freshman 361 rushing yards in the past two games.
Conque rushed for a career-high 134 yards on 20 carries with a pair of scores, his second-straight 100-yard rushing performance. The junior also completed 17 of his 26 passes for 163 yards and a touchdown, giving him 297 yards of total offense on the night.
Robert Sylvester led the Lumberjack receiving corps with five catches for 56 yards while Justice Liggins hauled in three catches for 44 yards and a touchdown. Aaron Piper also had three catches on the afternoon for SFA.
Defensively, SFA’s defensive line had its best showing of the year, finishing with four sacks and six tackles for loss against the Nicholls offensive unit. Kedrick Harrison notched a pair of sacks with Demetrion Amie and Jamal Allen also credited with sacks on the night. Price Miller once again led the ‘Jacks with eight tackles, followed by seven stops from Justin Owens and six from both Zack Starnes and Trevon Smith.
Another key stat came in the red zone as the Lumberjacks scored just three times on eight attempts while the Colonels made good on three of their four opportunities. SFA was efficient on third down, converting on eight of their 13 attempts, while going 2-of-3 on fourth down.
Nicholls raced out to a commanding 14-0 lead in the first quarter, beginning with a two-play drive that covered 75 yards in just 24 seconds to give the Colonels the early 7-0 lead. Nicholls struck again on its next possession, going 77 yards on eight plays as the Colonels raced out to a 14-0 lead with 6:35 left in the first half.
SFA drove deep into Nicholls’ territory on the ensuing drive but the first of four lost fumbles struck the ‘Jacks as Jacolby Whitaker coughed up the ball at the four, which was recovered by the Colonels in the endzone for the touchback.
After forcing a three-and-out, SFA benefitted from a 17-yard punt from Nicholls and covered the remaining 44 yards in just four plays, finishing with a 22-yard pass from Conque to Liggins to pull the ‘Jacks to within seven at 14-7 after the first.
Nicholls pushed its lead back to 14 with a 12-play, 85-yard drive to give the Colonels the 21-7 lead with 10:04 remaining in the half. SFA looked to cut into that lead on its ensuing possession, but in a bad case of déjà vu, Easly fumbled at the one-yard line and watched as Nicholls recovered the loose ball and raced 53 yards into SFA territory. The Lumberjack defense held serve, however, as Harrison returned the favor with a sack to force a Nicholls fumble, dodging a bullet for the earlier miscue as the Colonels held on to the 21-7 halftime lead.
The fumble woes continued into the second half as Robert Sylvester fumbled the kickoff to open the half, giving Nicholls the ball on the SFA 20-yard line and in prime territory to distance itself from the ‘Jacks. But the SFA defense forced another big fumble four plays later at the goal line, recovering the loose ball as the Lumberjacks avoided another disastrous outcome.
SFA’s took advantage of the fumble and marched 94 yards in 10 plays, capped with a three-yard touchdown rush by Easly, pulling the ‘Jacks to within seven at 21-14. The Lumberjacks were threatening at the end of the quarter, facing a fourth and five at the Nicholls 12 yard line as the fourth quarter began, but Mason Juhl pushed a field goal attempt wide left, keeping the Colonels in front by seven.
Nicholls added a field goal with 10:50 remaining, giving the Colonels a 10-point lead at 24-14 and forcing the Lumberjacks to score twice. It served as a challenge Conque was ready to embrace as the quarterback led SFA down the field twice, scoring two rushing touchdowns, including the game-winner with 26 seconds to go.
In a fitting conclusion to a wild game at Homer Bryce, Nicholls’ potential game-winning drive was snuffed out before it even began as the Colonels fumbled on the ensuing kickoff return with the Lumberjacks recovering to seal the game.
The win came at a price for SFA, however, as senior wide receiver Aaron Thomas suffered a broken collarbone in the victory, ending his SFA career. Thomas, who finishes his career with 141 catches for 1,955 yards, becomes the second fifth-year senior in as many weeks whose career ends prematurely due to injury, joining running back Fred Ford.
The loss for Nicholls is the 23rd-straight for the Colonels as SFA improves to 25-7 in the all-time series. SFA extends its winning streak to eight games over Nicholls as the ‘Jacks have won 10 of the last 11 against the Colonels.
Up next for SFA is a trip to Hammond, Louisiana, facing nationally-ranked Southeastern Louisiana next Saturday, October 17. Kickoff against the Lions is set for 7 p.m. at Strawberry Stadium, airing on FOX College Sports.
Head Coach Clint Conque Postgame Quotes
Opening Statement:
“It's better to win ugly than lose playing pretty I guess. First of all, just a courageous effort by our football team, particularly in the second half and in the fourth quarter. We dug ourselves a pretty good hole. Learning how to win is tough and we’ve had to go through some tough trials over the last month. I’m very proud of the resiliency. We made some key plays in the second half. You have to give Nicholls credit. They came in here on point. But I’m really proud of the way our football team showed a great deal of resiliency to overcome our own self inflicted mistakes. Hopefully this is one of a bunch and we move forward now, hopefully feeling better about ourself. We came out and played in the first half like we practiced this week. And I get it, nobody is feeling great about their lot in life right now. At times we just went through the motions last week in practice and that’s what we looked like in the first half. But I thought I saw a little different sense of urgency and all three phases contributed. I thought the defense did a phenomenal job in the second half, really limiting them, creating a turnover down in the red zone, which was huge”.
On the four fumbles:
“The three in the first half were three different people, and then the opening kickoff of the second half. Sometimes I think we’re trying too hard. Zach's (Conque) miscues in he fumble game is because he’s trying to give extra effort. Robert Sylvester was trying to give extra effort. Loren Easly and Jacolby Whitaker, same thing. It wasn’t like we were just putting it on the ground. I think the effort is there. The attention to detail is not and that really hurt us. Again, I’m proud of the resiliency we showed in the second half and found a way to win in the fourth quarter. That could be a turning point for our season, and could continue to be a turning point”.
On the play of Nicholls:
“They are a big physical team with nice skill players. The quarterback gave us fits. Two years ago he came in here and put up almost 400 yards of offense. He's an athletic quarterback that can throw the ball as his passing is really improved. They've got a little team speed but we pounded the football pretty good with almost 300 yards rushing again tonight. We were efficient in throwing the football but we gave up too many sacks."
On the running back situation:
“Well lets go through this right now. Cameron Washington, who was a senior this year, left our football program after the first game. Joshawa West has been hurt since the Abilene game so he did not play tonight and played just a hand full of snaps against Sam Houston. Now Fred Ford has been determined to have a season ending injury. We hope to get Josh back this week but we’ve had to really lean on a true freshman (Loren Easly) who’s coming off major knee surgery. Now he’s a phenomenal football player and will be one of the all time greats if he stays healthy, but we’ve got to value the football. Whoever is carrying the ball, we have to value the football and I think he learned a big lesson tonight."
On going for it on fourth and one in the fourth quarter instead of kicking a field goal:
“I was leaning towards kicking the field goal (to potentially tie the game at 24-24), but you know the season hadn’t gone like we’d hoped it had and we were decided to put it in one of our best players hands. The offense bailed me out of that decision. I thought he had (a touchdown) at first. I thought it was a horrible spot (on the run on fourth down), but I guess they reviewed it. We got a couple of breaks in the game. They had some penalties, we had some penalties. It was a back and forth type of game. They coughed up the ball some but the way our season was going, I felt we needed to go for the win."
On the play of Zach Conque:
“There were some plays that I don't know how he got out if (the pressure). He has taken an incredible amount of criticism the last few games, and on some corners, justifiably so. When you’re the quarterback, when you’ve got the same name as the head coach, when you fumble three times, that comes with the territory. He’s got broad shoulders and he’s a great football player. Now he’s got to clean up his details too. He stood in there on third down late in the game and got high-lowed. I don’t know how he got up and then he threw a laser in there to Robert Sylvester who adjusted his route and got a first down so we could go down and score. We are a better football team with number two on the field, but number two has to learn how to protect the football. He missed a throw early I thought could have been a touchdown to Robert. We’re still working with some newer, younger receivers and there was some good things out there tonight. Justin Liggins obviously gave us a big play. Robert gave us several big plays. There was a nice little touch pass to Aaron Thomas on third down that gave us a first down. I'm not sure if people know yet but we lost Aaron tonight with a broken collar bone. His career is over, which is a shame because few players have given as much to this program as Aaron Thomas has."
-SFA-
