Stephen F. Austin
Incarnate Word
SFA Races Past UIW, 55-21, on Homecoming
10/31/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
Stephen F. Austin 55, Incarnate Word 21
Homer Bryce Stadium | Nacogdoches, Texas
Records: SFA (3-5, 3-3 SLC); UIW (4-4, 3-3 SLC)
Up Next: at Central Arkansas | Saturday, November 7 | 2:30 p.m.
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Stephen F. Austin put together its most complete game of the 2015 season Saturday as both the offense and defense made big plays in a 55-21 victory over Incarnate Word on Homecoming. The win is the third-straight for the Lumberjacks who improve to 3-5 on the year and 3-3 in Southland Conference play.
"We're very happy to get this win," said head coach Clint Conque. "Incarnate Word was a very hot team coming into this game, and I thought we did a good job of shutting them down. Our offense played well and our defense really dominated, especially in the second half. That's three wins in a row, and we've still got some work to do, but we're starting to get some confidence."
That confidence was evident on both sides of the ball as offensively, the Lumberjacks racked up 443 yards of total offense on the night, passing for 265 yards and rushing for 178. SFA converted 50% of its third-down opportunities, going 8-for-16, while going 2-for-2 both on fourth down and in the red zone.
Meanwhile, on defense, SFA held Incarnate Word to just 281 yards of total offense, including 73 on the ground. The Cardinals struggled on third down all night, converting on just 2-of-11 opportunities, while the SFA defensive unit forced five UIW turnovers, two of which were returned into touchdowns.
Quarterback Zach Conque went 22-of-33 for 256 yards and a career-best four touchdowns with an interception while rushing for 35 yards on 13 carries.
Conque spread his passes to seven different SFA receivers, led by Aaron Piper's six catches for a career-best 139 yards and two touchdowns, marking his first 100-yard receiving game and the most receiving yards by an SFA player since Tyler Boyd's 229-yard performance against Lamar in 2013.
De'Quann Ruffin pulled in four catches for 60 yards and a touchdown while Justice Liggins racked up 26 yards on three catches. Judah Jones also had three catches for 25 yards and a touchdown on the night.
Running back Loren Easly had another productive night, rushing for 85 yards on 10 carries, including a 41-yard touchdown run to open the game for the Lumberjacks. Joshawa West had eight carries for 37 yards as well for SFA.
Defensively, linebacker Justin Owens paced the defensive attack with 11 tackles (five solo), followed by Allen Stewart's eight tackles, including a sack. On the night, SFA's defense posted three sacks, with Kedrick Harrison and Jamal Allen recording the other two.
Trevon Smith, Patrick Martin and Marlon Walls each recorded interceptions for SFA as Walls returned his 13 yards for the capping touchdown. Germod Williams and Tre Rosser also recovered fumbles for the Lumberjacks with Rosser's 47-yard return for a touchdown in the third quarter serving as the momentum shifter the Lumberjacks were looking for.
Seeking its fifth-straight Homecoming victory, the Lumberjacks put itself behind the eight ball early as Conque threw his lone interception on SFA's first drive of the game, giving Incarnate Word great field position at the Lumberjack 40-yard line. But the Cardinals would miss a 34-yard field goal attempt, setting the tone for a strong performance by SFA.
The `Jacks drew first blood behind Easly's 41-yard touchdown run at the 4:01 mark of the first quarter, giving SFA the early 7-0 lead. UIW would respond with a lengthy drive in the waning seconds of the quarter, tying the game at 7-7 after one.
SFA then put together its most productive quarter of the season as the `Jacks recorded 20 second quarter points to break the game open. Mason Juhl connected on a 25-yard field goal early (SFA's first made field goal of the season), which was then quickly answered with a nine-yard strike from Conque to Jones and a 66-yard catch and run by Piper as the `Jacks extended their lead to 24-7 late in the half.
Incarnate Word trimmed that deficit to 10 in the final minute of the first half, benefitting off a Lumberjack fumble at its own five-yard line, cutting the SFA lead to 24-14 with 36 seconds remaining. But SFA had the last laugh on the final play of the second half as Juhl drilled a career-long 48 yard field goal as time expired, giving the `Jacks the 27-14 halftime lead.
Incarnate Word began to swing momentum back in its favor early in the third quarter as the Cardinals returned the second half kickoff back 100 yards for a touchdown, cutting the lead to 27-21. After a defensive stop, UIW got the ball back looking for potentially its first lead of the game, but Cardinal wide receiver Kody Edwards, the same player who had just returned the kick for the touchdown, coughed up a catch at the 47 yard line which was snagged out of the air by Rosser and returned for a touchdown, swinging momentum all the way back into SFA's favor.
From that point on, the Lumberjacks took control as the SFA defense limited UIW to just 45 total yards over the final 26 minutes. The `Jacks put the Homecoming tilt out of reach with 28 unanswered points to close out the game as Conque threw a pair of touchdown strikes to Piper (26 yards) and Ruffin (29 yards).
The emphatic nail in the coffin came with a minute to go as Walls picked off UIW backup quarterback Jordan Scelfo at the Cardinal 13-yard line and raced untouched into the endzone, giving SFA the 55-21 Homecoming victory.
The 55 points is the most scored by the Lumberjacks this season and the second most points for SFA in the Clint Conque era, coming just shy of the 59 points registered in the win at Houston Baptist last season. It also marked the first time the Lumberjack defense had recorded a pair of touchdowns since a 69-10 win over Lamar in 2011.
With the victory, SFA improves to 2-0 all-time against Incarnate Word following last season's 38-3 victory. The Lumberjacks are now 40-35-1 all-time on Homecoming as SFA has won five-straight and six of the last seven.
The Lumberjacks put their three-game winning streak on the line next week in one of the most anticipated games of the 2015 season. With SFA's Homecoming in the books, it is now time for the Conque family Homecoming as the Lumberjacks head to Central Arkansas for a showdown with the Bears on Saturday, November 7th. It marks coach Conque's first trip to UCA after spending 14 seasons as the Bears' head coach as kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. at Estes Stadium.
Head Coach Clint Conque
Opening statement:
"Overall, we're very happy to win. Incarnate word came in here after beating Northwestern State, Abilene Christian and Nicholls and were just really a hot team coming in. We settled in after a couple of possessions and dominated. I'm not happy with that kickoff return at the start of the third and some other plays where we lacked communication, including that six-yard hitch route that went for a 30-yard gain but overall I'm very pleased with the win tonight. We've got some work to do but we've built up some confidence. I thought we ran and threw the ball well and defensively we scored two touchdowns, and so I'm very happy about that. We are getting a little thin in some places after a couple of our guys got dinged up. We've got some work to but overall I'm very pleased about the win.
On the quarterback issue coming into the game:
"There was no doubt. Zach's our starting quarterback and we have total confidence in him, just like we have complete confidence in Hunter Taylor and in our two deep at every position on the field. Everybody has a role on this team and Hunter understands and plays his role. He played outstandingly last weekend. You see it in the NFL there is a lot of teams can't win with back up quarterback, so you've got to be pretty good two deep at every position. Hunter makes us good on the two deep at quarterback."
On ability to limit the running game:
"I thought we did an excellent job. One of these keys was their running back getting hurt early. I thought we played aggressive up front. I thought our linebackers fit well and there were also some big hits coming out of the secondary. Overall, I'm pleased with the whole defense. In my mind they gave up seven points tonight after we gave up a kickoff return and a miscue deep in our territory. Other than that it was a total domination."
On the kicking game coming alive:
"Mason Juhl is a very good kicker. Obviously we had some issues because of his health early on but I think making the first field goal from a bad hash gave him some confidence. I thought we executed well in that one minute situation to get in field goal range. I felt like he had been kicking well after last week so I had some confidence and I think he's peaking at the right time. Who knows - we might need him to win a game next week and we have confidence in him."
On the team responding after the 0-5 start:
"We're still pretty up but we feel better about ourselves after our last few games. We've found the right formulas to win. We were perfect in the red area and we won the turnover battle today. We played very good situational football and I think we are playing with confidence, which we'll need going into Conway. We're taking it one day, one week at a time. We've won three in a row now and our goal is to win four in a row."
Quarterback Zach Conque
Opening statement:
"It was good for us, especially confidence-wise as we prepare for three more games in conference. We're confident we can go win these next three because looking back, we go out and get that first win then that second win and then a third one. We are looking forward to this next week and have a lot of confidence in ourselves."
On how critical the bye week was for him:
"It was huge. From a health standpoint, I knew this was probably the most important week I've ever had. I've been banged up all year with several different injuries but holding off a little this week really paid off. I woke up this morning feeling like a million bucks and after pre game I felt really good. It's the best I've felt since week one."
On his mindset after the early interception:
"On that interception, they were playing man coverage and I made the right read but it was a 50-50 ball. It was third and five and it just ended up not going our way. I tried not to think anything of it. As a quarter back you've got to have a short memory."
On if he felt any extra pressure following Hunter Taylor's performance last week:
"No, not at all. He got the start against McNeese State and he came in and did a great job, then did a great job at Southeastern Louisiana last game. As a quarterback, when you play so many games, eventually you're not going to have a great game and Hunter gave us that spark when we needed it. Pressure wise, there's nothing. He and I have a great relationships and there's nothing like that between us."
On going to play at Central Arkansas next week:
"It's going to be interesting, for sure. We lived up there for 14 years and I know a lot of people and know a lot of guys on the team. It's going to be a rough one for me and especially for pops (Coach Conque). We'll probably be hearing it from the student section but that's just something you've got to brush off. It's going to be a big game for us. This is our homecoming. This week was SFA's homecoming, next week is going to be our homecoming and we want to win that one more than anything."
-SFA-
