ABILENE – Defense rarely decides games between rivals ACU and West Texas A&M, but that was definitely the case Saturday as the 10th-ranked Wildcats used a great defensive effort to knock off their Lone Star Conference rival, 28-18, in front of a large Homecoming crowd at Shotwell Stadium.
The win keeps the Wildcats unbeaten in LSC play at 4-0, while pushing their overall mark to 5-1. The Buffs, meanwhile, fall to 4-2 and 4-1. ACU has another big showdown next Saturday at 8 p.m. in Wichita Falls against unbeaten Midwestern State (6-0 and 5-0), which whipped Angelo State, 68-20, Saturday night in San Angelo.
ACU entered Saturday's game with the league's worst pass defense, but sacked WT quarterback Dustin Vaughan seven times – three by defensive end
Aston Whiteside – and limited the Buffs to 46 yards of rushing. And after giving up 256 yards of offense in the first half, the Wildcats put the clamps on the Buffs, allowing just 104 yards of offense in the second half, including only 15 on the ground.
The Wildcats gave up 314 yards through the air, but allowed only one pass play longer than 24 yards and held Vaughan to just 9 of 21 for 89 yards in the game's final 30 minutes.
Whiteside finished with a career-best three sacks and was a constant presence in the Buffs' backfield. He also had seven tackles and pass breakup in a dominating performance against WT's offensive line.
"He put on a show today," ACU head coach Chris Thomsen said of Whiteside. "If he wasn't getting a sack he was forcing the quarterback to move around and making him uncomfortable in the pocket. He was pretty excited (Saturday morning); he was ready to go. He's been around this rivalry since 2007, so he knows the importance of this game and knows that players have to step up and play at a higher level. He's a great competitor and great leader, and he led our team."
Meanwhile, the ACU offense was led by junior quarterback Mitchell Gale, who for the fourth straight game directed an offense that didn't turn the ball over and settled into the game after some early struggles. Gale was sacked on two of ACU's first three plays and he took some hits throughout the game, but he finished an efficient 18 of 31 for 305 yards and two scores.
The two biggest plays of the game for the Wildcats came on similar plays, one in the second quarter and one in the fourth.
Early in the second quarter with ACU backed up inside its own 1-yard line and trailing 3-0, ACU offensive coordinator
Ken Collums dialed up a play-action pass and the offense made it work. WT's defense bought Gale's fake, allowing tight end
Ben Gibbs to slip downfield uncovered. Gale stood up in the end zone and found his big tight end, who rumbled 75 yards to the WT 22-yard line to get the offense going.
Four plays later,
Daryl Richardson scored from three yards out to give ACU a 7-3 lead with 10:22 left in the first half.
On its next possession, the Buffs moved smartly down the field and appeared to be ready to regain the lead, but
Darien Williams forced a Khriry Robinson fumble at the ACU 25, and Williams recovered it to give the ball back to the offense.
Gale hit Gibbs for 12 yards before finding
Taylor Gabriel for 40 yards to the WT 23-yard line. After a 19-yard pass from Gale to
Reggie Brown got the ball to the 4, Brown finished the drive with a four-yard run to make it 14-3 with 7:36 left in the first half.
The Wildcats' lead was 21-10 early in the fourth when they lined for a 52-yard field goal attempt. The kick barely got off the ground after a bad snap, giving WT the ball at its own 35-yard line with 11:25 left in the game.
But WT went three-and-out with the drive ending with a sack of Vaughan by Whiteside and
Thor Woerner. But the Wildcats couldn't do anything with the ball and were forced to punt. But on the snap, punter
Spencer Covey dropped the ball and was tackled at the ACU 9-yard line, giving the Buffs a short field.
Vaughan immediately made ACU pay, hitting Brittan Golden with a 9-yard scoring strike to make it 21-16. The buffs converted the 2-point conversion to make it 21-18 with 8:38 left in the game.
Momentum was clearly on the Buffs' side.
The Wildcats changed all that on the next two plays.
Charcandrick West fielded the kickoff on the run at the 8-yard line and returned it 39 yards to the 47 to give ACU good field position. Then on first down, Collums again dialed up play-action, and once again Gale worked it to perfection.
Fullback
Justin Andrews slipped down the middle of the field, caught a perfectly thrown ball from Gale and went the distance for a 53-yard momentum-changing touchdown reception to put the Wildcats back on top 28-18 with 8:21 left in the game.
"Those special teams plays we gave them were big," Thomsen said, "and they could have been game-changers. But then Charcandrick came out and answered back with a big kickoff return, and that gave us good field position. That allowed us to be aggressive with our play-call on first down. We were hoping the safeties would be overly aggressive there with the run-fake, and we were able to get what we were looking for and get a big play."
Vaughan finished the game just 1 for his last 9 attempts as he was under constant pressure and ACU was able to run out the final minute of the game.
Gale's 305-yard effort was his fourth 300-yard passing effort this season and 11th of his career, moving him into third place on ACU's all-time list behind Billy Malone (20 300-yard passing games) and Jim Lindsey (14 300-yard passing games).
