SFA Falls 58-14 at SMU in Season Opener

Saturday, September 2

Dallas, Texas (Gerald J. Ford Stadium)

6:00 p.m.

Stephen F. Austin

0-1

SMU

1-0

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Stephen F. Austin	0	7	0	7	14
SMU	21	17	6	14	58

Photo by: Hardy Meredith | SFA Photography

SFA Falls 58-14 at SMU in Season Opener

9/2/2017 11:18:00 PM | Football

Box Score

The ‘Jacks scored in both the second and fourth quarters but were unable to recover from a 21-0 first quarter deficit

By: Luke Bolanos | Assistant Director of Athletic Media Relations

Photo Gallery

DALLAS, Texas – The Stephen F. Austin football team's 2017 campaign opened up with a 58-14 loss at SMU Saturday night inside Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas. Several early miscues on both the offensive and defensive ends led to a 21-point first quarter outburst by the host Mustangs (1-0), and the Lumberjacks (0-1) never seemed to settle in.

Only able to cross the 50-yard line twice in the first half, once in each quarter, it took over eight and a half minutes into the second quarter before SFA's defense was able to force a SMU punt. After going three and out on their opening drive to start the game, the 'Jacks witnessed a 12 play, 74 yard by the Mustangs that took just over four minutes of play. Resulting in a 13-yard touchdown pass from SMU's starting quarterback Ben Hicks to Heisman Trophy candidate Courtland Sutton, it would be the first of five consecutive Mustang touchdowns to start the game.

Moments later, sophomore starting quarter Jake Blumrick (Pearland, Texas) had his pass intercepted by SMU's Jordan Wyatt for an 85-yard pick six. The Mustangs pushed their lead to three touchdowns after Ke'Mon Freeman broke free for a 21-yard rush into the end zone, capping a five play, 54-yard drive that took just 90 seconds. SMU had no trouble running on the 'Jacks as the Mustangs got a 51-yard run from Braeden West on the first play of a 78-yard touchdown drive that involved all running plays. The drive came to an end with a one-yard score from D.J. Gillins, putting SMU ahead 28-0 with 13:30 left in the second quarter.

Junior TCU transfer Foster Sawyer (Fort Worth, Texas) entered the game behind center for Blumrick on SFA's final drive of the first quarter, but the offense was stalled once again after a single first down. On the Lumberjack's first possession of the second quarter, SFA found itself backed up deep in its own territory after a pair of unsportsmanlike penalties on the same play. The very next play Sawyer was sacked in his own end zone as the Mustangs forced a fumble and recovered the ball for their fifth touchdown of the game.

Trailing 35-0, the 'Jacks finally got on the scoreboard when senior running back Kijana Amous (Mansfield, Texas) broke free for a 23-yard scamper up the gut. The touchdown by Amous capped SFA's most successful drive of the night, going 75 yards in nine plays and using 3:55 of the clock.

Neither team displayed much offense for the remainder of the first half as SMU made a 40-yard field goal after an eight play, 29-yard drive. The 'Jacks entered the locker room at the half after being outgained 242 to 125 in total offensive yards, including 165 to 45 on the ground.

The Mustangs extended their lead even further in the third quarter, scoring on a Hicks' 35-yard touchdown pass to Trey Quinn with 10:13 to go in the period. The extra point was missed but made it a 44-7 game. A pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter gave SMU its largest lead of the game at 58-7. Gillins scored his second one-yard touchdown of the contest four seconds into the final quarter, before backup quarterback Rafe Peavey found Brandon Benson for a long, 72-yard strike with just under seven minutes to go.

Redshirt freshman Josh McGowen (McAllen, Texas) put SFA in great field position after taking the Mustangs' ensuing kickoff 71 yards to the SMU 23-yard line. Just two plays later, the 'Jacks scored their second touchdown of the night following a 17-yard reception by freshman Dylan Parker (Elysian Fields, Texas) and a six-yard catch-and-run score by junior Arkansas running back transfer Juan Day (Little Rock, Ark.).

A pair of first downs, including a 4th-and-1 conversion, kept the clock rolling for the Mustangs as the home team ran out the final 6:14 of the contest in nine plays and only 18 yards.

SFA was outgained 465 to 219 in total yards for the game, including 222 to 144 through the air and 243 to 75 on the ground. Penalties also cost the 'Jacks as SFA was flagged for 85 yards on 10 different calls.

Sophomore safety Alize Ward (San Diego, Calif.) came just 16-yards short of the program's all-time single-game kickoff return yards record, earning 171 yards on six kickoffs including a 56-yard return in the first quarter. Ward also led the 'Jacks on defense, making eight total tackles. Senior cornerback Trent Perriman (Miami, Fla.) and sophomore linebacker Teddy Britton (San Antonio, Texas) both posted six total stops, including a tackle for loss each. Offensively, Blumrick completed 13 of his 27 pass attempts for 134 yards and a score, while sophomore wide receiver Tamrick Pace (Brownsboro, Texas) reeled in five catches for 51 yards. Amous finished the night with 38 yards on the ground and one of SFA's two touchdowns as sophomore running back Jamall Shaw (Broken Arrow, Okla.) gained 36 rushing yards. Junior Texas A&M transfer wide receiver Frank Iheanacho (Houston, Texas) posted 42 yards on three catches, including a 28-yard reception during the 'Jacks' second quarter scoring drive.

The 'Jacks will have the next week to prepare for their home opener next Saturday, Sept. 9, when SFA hosts Southern Utah in a 6 p.m. kickoff. Presented by BancorpSouth, next weekend's game will be featured as United Way Relief Day and a white out.

Stay tuned to SFAJacks.com, as well as SFA's social media platforms, for complete coverage of Lumberjack football this fall.

Quotes | Head Coach Clint Conque

Opening statement
"Congratulations to Coach (Chad) Morris and SMU. They (the Mustangs) executed well tonight. Obviously, we got off to not the kind of start we wanted to get off too as a football team. You dig yourself a 21-0 hole and we just did not compete and play as well as we're hopefully capable of playing. We played a lot of young kids tonight, first-time starting quarterback; but self-inflicted wounds, penalties, sack touchdown, fumble touchdown, and a pick-six is not the start we want. There were some bright spots at times, obviously, but certainly not enough to compete against a quality FBS football team."

On what he saw from his two quarterbacks that he liked and can maybe use going forward:
"Well we'll have to go back and look at it. We started Jake Blumrick tonight and he played nervous early, botched a couple of snaps, and the pick-six, which was just a miscommunication between him and the receiver not on the same page. One thing that Jake does have, is he is pretty accurate and gets rid of the ball, it gets out of his hands quick. We certainly had Foster Sawyer here available to play but did not want to play him that early, if at all. But it's like throwing a rookie pitcher out in Major League Baseball, you get knocked around early in your career and it can have a scaring and lasting affect. What I told Jake was, 'Look, I'm going to let Foster take it and let you calm down', and I thought he played better after that. Obviously, Foster has some work to do; Jake has some work to do. We've just got a lot of work to do as a football team, starting with valuing the football No. 1 and No. 2, playing cleaner as far as fouls are concerned. We started 11 first-time starters here at Stephen F. Austin, 10 sophomore started tonight and I think we had nine freshmen in the two-deep. Played a lot of kids tonight, now we've got to regroup, go back and reevaluate starting with us coaches schematically and then, obviously, personnel, players and those kinds of things."

On the health of Foster Sawyer:
"I mean, obviously, he's not quite 100% yet but far enough along that we felt confident putting him in there. I mean I think if game on the line, he could have gone back in. The type of injury he has is something that he is going to have to play with a little bit of discomfort for the rest of the season. That's all I will say on that."

On Tamrick Pace and how valuable he is going to be to the team moving forward:
"He's a proven player, he was freshman All-American, and we've got to get the ball to him. There are probably more targets. I thought (Frank) Iheanacho had several good catches but he missed a couple of things, a couple of critical third downs as far as rout conversions. Trae Hart had a nice catch or two, Terian Goree had a couple of catches that probably won't show up in the stat sheet because they had fouls on SMU and we took the penalty. We like our receiving corps. Obviously, Tamrick is a proven commodity out there and we've got to create opportunities for him."

-SFA-