Ranked SLC Football Teams Win in Week Two
The two ranked teams in the Southland Conference picked up week-two victories Saturday. No. 22/24 Central Arkansas needed a game-ending interception by Anthony Gambles in the end zone to seal a 24-21 victory over UC Davis. No. 9/10 McNeese State claimed a 52-27 victory vs. Delta State in its home opener. The other four conference games played Saturday pitted the Southland against teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The league was winless in those games with Baylor beating Northwestern State 51-6, Mississippi State downing Southeastern Louisiana 34-10, TCU beating Stephen F. Austin 67-7 and SMU getting past Texas State 47-36. Nicholls State’s game Thursday at New Mexico State was cancelled. Sam Houston State did not play this week.
No. 22/24 Central Arkansas 24, UC Davis 21
CONWAY, Ark. ? Junior cornerback Anthony Gambles went high in the end zone to intercept a pass with 43 seconds left Saturday night to seal Central Arkansas’ 24-21 victory over UC Davis at First Security Field at Estes Stadium.
The No. 22/24 Bears, clinging to a three-point lead, punted to the Aggies (1-1) with 4:29 remaining in the game. Davis, starting at its own 20, drove to the UCA 33 and then completed a 4-yard, fourth-down pass from Greg Denham to Chris Miller, good for a first down at the UCA 29.
On first down, Denham threw toward Chris Carter in the right corner of the end zone. Carter, who had 13 catches for 189 yards and two touchdowns in the game, jumped but Gambles had inside position and pulled down the interception to seal the victory.
The Bears (2-0) led just 7-0 at halftime on the strength of a 5-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Nathan Brown to junior tailback Brent Grimes on a fourth-down play late in the first quarter.
It was Grimes’ only catch of the night.
Meanwhile, UCA’s defense held the Aggies to 43 first-half yards on 24 plays. For the game, the Aggies finished with just 11 yards on the ground.
The offenses came back and combined for 24 third-quarter points.
UCA started it with a 29-yard pass from Brown to sophomore Darrius McNeal, also on fourth down, and made it a 17-0 lead on freshman Eddie Carmona’s 26-yard field goal.
The Aggies came back with consecutive scores, both touchdown passes from Denham to Carter. The first, a 19-yarder, capped an 8-play, 69-yard drive. The second was a 35-yarder that closed the gap to 17-14 with 1:41 left in the third period.
Grimes, a junior from Baton Rouge who had answered for UCA with an 8-yard scoring run early in the fourth quarter but Denham struck again with a 6-yard pass to tight end Brad Bispo to close it to one score again.
Brown finished 26-of-38 for 258 yards and two touchdowns for the Bears, who avenged a 33-13 loss to the Aggies in their only other meeting in 2006. Senior Eric Ware had a career-high 107 receiving yards on nine receptions. Gambles was the Bears’ second-leading tackler with six stops, while junior defensive end Larry Hart tied a school record with 3 sacks for minus 17 yards.
Junoir safety Pieri Feazell tied another school record by blocking two punts and also added four tackles.
Denham completed 30-of-45 for 296 and three touchdowns for the Aggies.
UCA travels to Little Rock next Saturday to face Arkansas-Pine Bluff at 6 p.m. at War Memorial Stadium.
No. 9/10 McNeese State 52, Delta State 27
LAKE CHARLES, La. ? The No. 9/10 McNeese State Cowboys got pin-point passing from quarterback Derrick Fourroux and rushing consistency from Toddrick Pendland in a 52-27 victory over Delta State Saturday.
The victory evened the Cowboys record at 1-1 and left Delta State 0-1 in its season opener. The game was played before 17,148, one of the largest opening day crowds for the Cowboys.
Fourroux had one of his better nights as he completed 15-of-19 passes for 228 yards and three touchdowns while Pendland ran for a career-high 136 yards and one touchdown on an 11.3 yards per carry average.
“I thought that we made some big plays tonight,” said Cowboy head coach Matt Viator. “We have some pretty good athletes out there so we gave them the ball and let them make the plays.”
The Cowboys scored points in all four quarters, putting across three touchdowns in a second quarter that gave them the game. They also had two TDs in the opening period, one in the third and a touchdown and a field goal in the fourth.
Eight Cowboys got into the scoring column: Immanuel Friddle, Pendland, Steven Whitehead, Elrick Jones, Darrell Jenkins, Richard Conner, Quinten Lawrence and Blake Bercegeay.
Fourroux’s touchdown passes were for 65 yards to Friddle, 32 yards to Whitehead and 12 yards to Richard Conner.
Backup Mark Fontenot completed only one pass in the game but it was 83 yards to Lawrence.
Pendland scored on a 39-yard run, Jones on a 1-yard run, Jenkins on a 70-yard pass interception return and Bercegeay on a 25-yard field goal as well as on seven PAT kicks.
The Cowboys scored two TDs in the first quarter and three in the second, getting 21 points in the final 7:26 of the second quarter.
A 70-yard pass interception return by Jenkins, the ninth longest in McNeese history, with only six seconds left in the half highlighted the period for the Cowboys.
Prior to that Fourroux had connected on scoring tosses of 65 yards to Friddle (the game’s first TD) and 32 yards to Whitehead.
It was a half of big plays for the Cowboys as Pendland scored on a 39-yard run and then Jones added a 1-yard score.
The Cowboys produced 310 total yards in the half, Fourroux hitting on 10-of-12 passes for 169 yards and Pendland rushing for 107 yards on five carries, his longest run being a non-scoring 62-yard scamper.
Delta State stayed with the Cowboys in the first quarter, trailing only 14-7 at the end of the opener, but couldn’t match the Pokes in the second. The Statesmen got scores from Dedrick Wilson on a 2-yard run and from Chad Schroeder on a 5-yard pass from Blake Barnes.
The visitors had 225 total offensive yards in the half.
Second half scoring for the Cowboys came on Conner’s career first touchdown catch, a 25-yard field goal by Bercegeay and Lawrence’s 83-yard pass reception from Fontenot, the fourth longest in McNeese history.
Delta State scored on a 64-yard pass from Barnes to Greg Betterson and on a 7-yard run by Garrett DeWitt.
Besides Fourroux and Pendland, the Cowboys also had Whitehead catch five passes for 97 yards, Lawrence catch four for 95 and Friddle three for 77.
Josh Quayhagen led the Cowboys in tackles with eight and Brant Linde had seven. Both had tackles for a loss and a sack.
For Delta State, Dewitt led the ball carries with 46 yards and Barnes completed 18-of-28 passes for 197 yards. Schroeder caught 11 passes for 119 yards.
On the game, McNeese totaled 538 yards while Delta had 452.
McNeese plays host to Cal Poly next Saturday at 7 p.m.
Baylor 51, Northwestern State 6
WACO, Texas ? The combination of new coach Art Briles' spread offense and lightning-fast true freshman quarterback Robert Griffin's talents fueled Baylor's 51-6 win over visiting Northwestern State on Saturday night.
Griffin, whose older sister DeJon throws the discus for the NSU track and field team, showed a powerful and accurate arm to go with his world-class speed (he was third in the NCAA 400 meter hurdles championship in May). Amid his 294 passing yards were touchdown passes of 49, 32 and 47 yards, and his speed allowed him to escape occasional pressure and outrun defenders while posting 42 yards on the ground including a 3-yard touchdown.
The outcome left both teams at 1-1, with Northwestern starting a four-game homestand next Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. in Turpin Stadium against Grambling. The game is the first on the Southland Conference Television Network.
"We take the tape, we learn from what we see, and we turn the page and get ready for a big game next Saturday," said seventh-year Demons' coach Scott Stoker. "Offensively, we were very inconsistent and not very good overall. Defensively, we had a bad game. But Baylor had a lot to do with that. They played well, the quarterback was everything we expected, and they made a lot of plays.
"We didn't. We missed a great chance on the second play of the game and that set the tone for the way we played in the first quarter. We had a lot of alignment problems, mental busts on defense that left them open space. Why did that happen? We'll look at the tape, coach 'em up, and be a lot better next week," Stoker said.
The Bears offense blazed through the Demons unabated in the opening quarter, scoring on all four possessions with alarming ease. Baylor had 206 yards, averaging 10.3 yards per play, en route to a 23-0 lead.
By then, Northwestern State's offense had two turnovers and one huge missed opportunity. On the game's second play, Northwestern State ran a well-executed bootleg pass but quarterback John Hundley threw too long for wide open receiver Adam Varnado, who was behind the defense past midfield.
The turnovers were a fumble by senior tailback Byron Lawrence, who had the ball ripped out of his grasp just before he went down in a pile near midfield; and a Hundley interception picked off by Chris Francis at the 19, leading to Griffin's 3-yard keeper and the 23-0 advantage just before the end of the disastrous first quarter.
Baylor got its first TD on a 49-yard strike from Griffin to Ernest Smith five minutes into the game, then popped a 40-yard Jay Finley run just over two minutes later for a 13-0 lead. Lawrence's fumble started a 56-yard drive that ended with a 20-yard Ben Parks field goal, followed by the Hundley interception.
The second quarter started with more of the same. Baylor went up 30-0 on a 35-yard run off a swing pass-like lateral to Finley, who needed just one block to break into the clear down the Bears' sideline 13:30 before halftime.
The Demons finally managed a first down on a 14-yard Hundley pass, and moved to the 10 on a 12-play drive that chewed 6:52 yards off the clock before NSU settled for a 31-yard Robert Weeks field goal 6:38 before halftime.
Finally, on the sixth Baylor possession of the game, the Bears were forced to punt 2:45 before halftime. Another good drive (16 plays, 68 yards) stalled in the red zone, where Weeks knocked through a 30-yarder on the last play of the half for a 30-6 score.
But Baylor started the second half with another scoring drive, going 79 yards in 8 plays to move ahead 37-6 on Griffin's third TD pass, a 32-yarder to Thomas White.
After posting 136 offensive yards by halftime, the Demons managed only 64 more in the last two quarters.
"They drove it down the field on us the last two times they had the ball in the first half, got some momentum," Briles said. "It was important for us to come out and take control again after halftime. We drove down for the touchdown and then we played pretty good defensively."
Griffin completed 15 of 19 passes for 294 yards. Hundley hit 16 of 28 with an interception for 127 yards.
Mississippi State 34, Southeastern Louisiana 10
STARKVILLE, Miss. ? Wesley Carroll completed 15-of-23 passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns while Anthony Dixon bolstered a Mississippi State rushing attack with 80 yards and two scores as the Bulldogs overcame a slow start and defeated Southeastern Louisiana, 34-10, before a crowd of 41,938 Saturday night at Davis-Wade Stadium.
Mississippi State (1-1) scored 34 unanswered points after Southeastern kicker Jeff Turner gave the Lions a 3-0 lead with a 46-yard field goal with 7:06 left in the first quarter. Dixon gave MSU a 7-3 lead as he scampered 14 yards off the right side, one play after Carroll hit Marcus Green on a 50-yard pass on third-and-9.
Adam Carlson booted field goals of 33 and 41 yards before Carroll connected with Austin Wilbanks on a 1-yard touchdown pass near the end of the first half for a 20-3 lead.
Trey Douglas registered 11 total tackles for Southeastern (1-1), which forced a pair of turnovers but committed 12 penalties and finished with 148 yards total offense. Jay Lucas was held in check by a stubborn MSU defense, finishing with 21 yards on nine carries.
Neither offense could break through on their opening drives as the Lions advanced from their own 30-yard line to the MSU 44 before stalling and having to punt. After allowing a first-down, the Lion defense held and forced the Bulldogs to punt from their own 26, giving Southeastern the ball at their own 45.
Jasper Ducksworth rattled off a 5-yard run and had 15 more added on for a face mask penalty as the Lions entered Mississippi State territory for the second time in as many drives. However, the Lions’ drive stalled as a sack by LaMarcus Williams and a false start penalty pushed the Lions back to the Bulldog 42.
After a 5-yard run from Mike Neville, the Lions faced third-and-12, where Neville scrambled again for a 9-yard gain and Turner nailed his first field goal attempt of the year to put the Lions up 3-0 with 7:06 remaining in the first quarter.
MSU answered back with a four-play, 65-yard touchdown drive, capped by Dixon’s scamper with 5:39 left in the first.
After a three-and-out from the Lion offense, the Southeastern defense stepped up by forcing a Bulldog fumble which Mark Newbill recovered to give the Lions the ball at their own 43.
MSU started the scoring in the second quarter as Carroll led the Bulldogs on a methodical 17-play, 64-yard scoring drive, capped off by Carlson’s 33-yard field goal that gave the Bulldogs a 10-3 lead with 10:00 left in the second.
The Bulldogs began driving once again, but, once again, the Southeastern defense stepped up and forced a turnover as Travis Williams recovered a fumble by Carroll to give the Lions the ball on their own 11-yard line.
Tyler Beatty, who transferred from Baylor, came on and made his debut at quarterback for Southeastern in relief of Mike Neville, who got off to a hot start but finished 3-for-10. Beatty finished 4-for-10 for 97 yards, hitting DeMario Simmons on a 70-yard pass that set up Jay Lucas’ 1-yard scoring plunge with 4:54 remaining.
After holding the Lions to 49 first half yards and totaling 250 yards of offense in the first half, Mississippi State picked up where it left off to start the second half.
The Bulldogs put together an 11-play, 65-yard touchdown drive at the start of the third quarter. A 3-yard touchdown pass from Carroll to Brandon McRae made it 27-3.
Southeastern will return to Hammond on Saturday for their home opener as the Lions host South Dakota, which lost at No. 9-ranked Northern Iowa, 24-13, in a 6 p.m. game at Strawberry Stadium.
TCU 67, Stephen F. Austin 7
FORT WORTH, Texas ? The Lumberjacks could only manage 143 yards of offense and the TCU Horned Frogs scored touchdowns on each of their first five possessions to open up a 42-7 halftime lead and cruise to a 67-7 win at Amon G. Carter Stadium on Saturday.
"When knew coming into this game that TCU was a very talented team," said SFA head coach J.C. Harper. "They executed in every facet of the game. I believe they will be ranked in the top 25 by the end of the season. I was proud of how our team fought tonight. They gave us everything they had, and that is all that we can ask. This is a learning experience for our young guys."
The 67 points are the fourth-most ever allowed by SFA (1-1) and are the most since Montana scored 70 in the third round of the 1995 playoffs.
SFA struggled against the Horned Frogs (2-0), who nearly shut out New Mexico on the road last week, turning the ball over four times while the Frogs only punted the ball once on the evening.
Jeremy Moses led the offense with 142 yards on 20 of 38 passing and a touchdown, but threw his first three interceptions of the season - one of which was returned for the Frogs' final score of the first half.
Dominique Edison led the SFA receiving corps with five catches for 37 yards.
The Lumberjacks took the kickoff and went three and out on their first possession while TCU wasted little time getting on the scoreboard on its first possession. Joseph Turner capped off an eight-play, 65-yard drive with a 12-yard run up the middle to give the Frogs a 7-0 lead just over four minutes into the game.
SFA would pick up a first down on its next possession, but just two plays later Jeremy Moses was picked off for the first time this season by Rafael Priest to give TCU the ball at the SFA 39. The Horned Frogs then took advantage of the short field with Turner falling into the end zone from four yards out for his second touchdown of the game.
Jeremy Kerley added a 6-yard rushing touchdown on the first play of the second quarter and the `Jacks gave the ball back on just the second play of their next possession on an errant snap that was recovered at the seven-yard line by Jerry Hughes. Two plays later it was Turner scoring his third touchdown of the night, this time from 4 yards out to push the score to 28-0.
SFA got on the board on its next possession, though, marching the ball 11 yards on 64 plays and ending in a one-yard touchdown reception by Aaron Rhea from Moses on fourth down. Moses was 7-for-9 passing on the drive, with the biggest play coming on a 29-yard catch by Contrevious Parks deep into TCU territory, setting up the score.
TCU would punch it in two more times before the half, including a 33-yard interception return for a touchdown by Steven Coleman just before the half.
The Lumberjacks continue the season next week at home when they take on Kentucky Wesleyan at Homer Bryce Stadium. The game against the Panthers is slated to begin at 6 p.m.
SMU 47, Texas State 36
DALLAS, Texas (AP) ? Bo Levi Mitchell threw five touchdown passes and SMU beat Texas State 47-36 Saturday night at Ford Stadium, ending an 11-game losing streak and making coach June Jones a winner in his first home game.
Texas State scored with 2 seconds left in the half and kept inching closer. The Bobcats (1-1) cut it to 40-29 in the fourth quarter on Cameron Luke's third touchdown catch.
Then it was Mitchell's turn again. Facing third-and-9 from his 29, the true freshman hit Sanders for 24 yards, then hit Robinson in the end zone from the 34.
Texas State scored again with 2:41 left but Sanders snagged an onside kick attempt. The Mustangs drove just shy of the goal line but opted to take a knee rather than trying to crack 50 points.
Mitchell was 24-of-37 for 370 yards. Robinson had 172 yards receiving and Sanders had 138, each with eight receptions.
Texas State's Clint Toon was 19-of-27 for 225 yards and four touchdowns. Luke caught six passes for 121 yards.
Thursday Result
Nicholls State at New Mexico State, cancelled