‘Jacks Improve to 2-0 in Southland with 20-10 Road Win over Abilene Christian

Saturday, September 23

Abilene, Texas

6:00 p.m.

Stephen F. Austin

2-2 , 1-1

Abilene Christian

1-3 , 1-1

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Stephen F. Austin

Abilene Christian

Photo by: Tim Nelson

‘Jacks Improve to 2-0 in Southland with 20-10 Road Win over Abilene Christian

9/23/2017 10:32:00 PM | Football

Box Score

SFA wins second consecutive game, claims first victory in Abilene since 1984 with 20-10 defeat of the Wildcats

By: Luke Bolanos | Assistant Director of Athletic Media Relations

Photo Gallery

ABILENE, Texas – The Stephen F. Austin football team sits at 2-0 in Southland Conference play after an impressive 20-10 road victory over Abilene Christian Saturday night inside the brand new Wildcat Stadium. The win is the Lumberjacks' (2-2, 2-0 Southland) second consecutive and first road victory of the season. For the first time in 2017 SFA outgained its opponent, racking up 414 total yards of offense compared to 328 by the host Wildcats (1-3, 1-1 Southland).

The 'Jacks were plus-four in the turnover margin after claiming four takeaways, the most in a game for SFA since homecoming last year versus Central Arkansas on Nov. 5, 2016. Registering a season-high 191 yards on the ground, the 'Jacks passed for another 223 on a total of 94 offensive plays, the most so far this season. SFA held ACU to 105 rushing yards as the game saw a combined 16 punts, eight by each team.

The first scoring drive of the game came about midway through the first quarter after a fake screen from the Wildcats resulted in a 44-yard pass downfield from Kade Munden to running back De'Andre Brown. The seven-play, 70-yard drive ended in a 22-yard field goal by ACU's Nik Grau. Trailing 3-0, SFA with the longest scoring drive of the game and the contest's first touchdown. The 13-play, 81-yard drive led by starting quarterback Foster Sawyer (Fort Worth, Texas) lasted 4:39 and concluded when Sawyer hit junior Texas A&M transfer Frank Iheanacho (Houston, Texas) for a 12-yard touchdown strike, giving the 'Jacks a 7-3 lead that they would not relinquish.

The touchdown ignited the SFA defense as the 'Jacks got a fumble recovery from junior linebacker Ryan Woods (Pearland, Texas) after a fearsome hit by sophomore linebacker Teddy Britton (San Antonio, Texas). However, SFA could not capitalize on the turnover as a fourth-and-five pass by Sawyer fell incomplete.

The two teams exchanged punts for almost the entirety of the second quarter before the Lumberjacks' final drive of the period resulted in a field goal. After a tremendous punt by junior Caleb Lewallen (Kingwood, Texas) pinned the Wildcats at their own one, SFA got good field position at its 38. With sophomore quarterback Jake Blumrick (Pearland, Texas) now behind center, the 'Jacks went 44 yards in under a minute to allow sophomore kicker Storm Ruiz (League City, Texas) to connect on a 35-yard field goal as time expired in the half. The field goal gave SFA a 10-3 advantage heading into the locker room

Sawyer went down on the Lumberjacks' second drive of the second quarter, taking a hard hit on a quarterback scramble while trying to convert a fourth down.

SFA began the second half with another strong defensive stand, allowing the Wildcats just 16 yards before having to punt. The 'Jacks then drove the ball 63 yards on 12 plays before failing convert on a fourth-and-five play on ACU's 29-yard line. A pair of punts followed before sophomore safety Alize Ward (San Diego, Calif.) made his second interception of the season when he picked off Wildcat starting quarterback Dallas Sealey. The takeaway gave the 'Jacks the ball at the ACU 36 as SFA went 27 yards in five plays, resulting in Ruiz' second field goal of the game. The 27-yard field goal by Ruiz gave the visiting 'Jacks a two-possession 13-3 lead with 2:09 remaining in the third quarter.

Just like the first quarter after SFA scored, the Wildcats turned the ball over a third time on their ensuing drive. Sophomore linebacker Spencer Choka (Bryan, Texas) knocked the ball out from ACU's Sealey and fell on top of it to give the 'Jacks possession at their own 48. This time the Wildcat turnover resulted in seven points for the visitors as SFA went 52 yards on 11 plays and ate 3:37 of clock. Senior running back Kijana Amous (Mansfield, Texas) punched it in from five yards out to give the 'Jacks a commanding 20-3 lead with 13:02 left in the game.

ACU constructed their longest drive of the game towards the end of the fourth quarter, going 80 yards on 13 plays in 4:08. A 11-yard touchdown pass from Sealey to Josh Fink at the 3:43 mark of the fourth got the home team within 10 at 20-10.

SFA chewed up 1:37 of clock on the ensuing drive and picked up a first down thanks to a 36-run by junior University of Arkansas transfer running back Juan Day (Little Rock, Ark.) up the middle of the field. A two possession game with just 2:06 to go, ACU needed to score in a hurry but junior safety Lawrence Ghansah (Cypress, Texas) stepped in front of a Sealey pass for the 'Jacks' fourth takeaway of the night and his first career interception. The pick sealed the deal for the conference road victory.

Blumrick finished the game going 14-for-25 for 110 yards, while Sawyer was 11-of-20 for 113 yards and a touchdown. Sophomore running back Jamall Shaw (Broken Arrow, Okla.) led SFA's rushing attack with a career-high 69 yards as Blumrick gathered 42 on the ground and Amous collected 38 yards along with his score.

Iheanacho made a season-high six catches for 58 yards and a touchdown reception. Junior North Texas transfer wideout Terian Goree (Carthage, Texas) had 43 receiving yards on five catches and Amous tallied 30 yards on four receptions.

Defensively, Ghansah led with a career-high eight total tackles and three solo stops, while Ward and Woods each earned five unassisted tackles for seven total. Senior defensive end John Franklin (Greenville, Texas) posted six total tackles as he finished with one and a half tackles for loss and a half sack. The 0.5 sack by Franklin gives him 15.5 sacks for his career and moves him into the top 10 list for career sacks in program history, now tied for ninth. Britton recorded six tackles on the night, including a career-high two tackles for loss.

Up next…

The 'Jacks will return to the comforts of Homer Bryce Stadium next Saturday, Sept. 30, for a 6 p.m. matchup with McNeese. Presented by Tipton Ford, the game will be featured as a purple out and will be parent's weekend.

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

Notes

The win is the first road victory for SFA since defeating Incarnate Word 42-19 on Oct. 29 last year. It also marks the first time since 1984 that the 'Jacks have won in Abilene as SFA lost the only other road meeting since then in 2015.

With his 44th Southland win, head coach Clint Conque moves into fourth place on the all-time career Southland victories list, surpassing former McNeese head coach Bobby Keasler. Conque now owns a 44-24 career record in Southland games spanning back to 2007 when he was at the helm of Central Arkansas. He also ranks sixth in the league in all-time overall victories while in the Southland with a 72-50 record.

Pace reached the 1,000-yard receiving mark for his career in the third quarter when he caught a 17-yard pass from Blumrick on SFA's opening drive of the second half. He now has 1,012 career yards in just 15 games played.

Reigning Southland Defensive Player of the Week and STATS FCS National Defensive Player of the Week Ward has now recorded an interception in back-to-back games for the first time of his career.

Quotes

Head Coach Clint Conque

On the impressive road win and SFA's defensive play
"I thought defensively we came out really focused tonight. For the most part I think we tackled well, I think we missed maybe only about a half dozen tackles tonight and that's credit to coach Byrd and his staff. Those young men over there, Trenton Gordon didn't play and we've got Trey Ramos out of the season so we are really thin back there at safety. Those three safeties back there played just about, if not, every snap. The linebackers played very well and I thought we played very physical up front. At the end of the day, the defense gets the game ball because if you can't score points, you can't win. Obviously, we gave them one late in the game. We were playing a lot of cover-two and soft and making them drive. I'm really proud of our defense and that should give them some confidence and momentum going forward."

"Offensively, I thought we left some points on the field, particularly early. I thought we ran the ball really well. We ran it really, really hard and the quarterback run was good to us today. We've got to do a little better job on third down but I thought for the most part we were able to control the line of scrimmage. We made some really nice catches, some tough catches, missed a few things but I thought Jake Blumrick really stepped up. Those banked reps he got starting against SMU and playing the majority of that game. He was able to pull back on those experiences and I thought he settled in and got more comfortable as the game went on. I was really proud of him. Special teams were lights out. We knocked down all of our kicks, a couple of the kickoffs weren't real pretty, but we covered punts and marked it down inside the five twice on a long field. We did what we needed to do on our coverages. We've got a lot to cleanup. This game came with a price, physically. We have to evaluate some players starting tomorrow and the first part of next week. We are going to enjoy this one. Our goal was to go 1-0 and wake up tomorrow morning and be 2-0 in conference and we'll be playing at home next week undefeated in conference play."

On getting a conference road win in the Southland
"They are tough. My experiences in the Southland, and I think most conference across the country, is you have to try to hold serve at home in conference play. Fortunately, we were able to do that last week, and you have to try and find a way to steal a couple on the road. I felt like tonight we put ourselves in a position to do that and then we were able to seal the deal. I thought we played four quarters of pretty consistent football and what was encouraging to me is how all three phases of the game, offense, defense and special teams really worked together tonight to get this team win. That's pretty explosive football team (Abilene Christian) over there. They've got a lot of the same pieces back from last year that scored 31 against us in Nacogdoches and averaged well over 30 points a game. They play a really tough schedule. The four turnovers were huge and I'm just really proud of our football team and our staff. Not a lot of people gave us a chance to come in here and win, anywhere in the state of Texas, so we're going to enjoy this one for 24 hours."

On what it means to move up to fourth in all-time Southland Conference head coaching wins
"I'll reflect on that later, I've been blessed to have been around some really awesome players through the years of coaching in this conference and some incredible, bright, talented coaches. It probably just means I've coached a long time too but I'll have time later on to reflect on that. A pretty good deal I guess."

-SFA-