KINGSVILLE – With their playoff lives hanging in the balance and trailing entering the final 15 minutes of the game, the ACU Wildcats came up with their biggest fourth quarter of the season, pulling out a 42-34 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville at Javelina Stadium.
The victory pushes the 16th-ranked Wildcats to 7-2 overall and 6-1 in the Lone Star Conference and means that they need to just beat Incarnate Word in next week's regular-season finale to clinch its sixth straight berth in the NCAA Division II playoffs. The Wildcats will host the Cardinals at 1 p.m. next Saturday at Shotwell Stadium.
The win for the Wildcats is their eighth straight over the Javelinas after losing 20 straight to Kingsville from 1984-2003. To get that eighth straight win, the Wildcats had to overcome a spectacular effort from Kingsville running back Jonathan Woodson, who had 228 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries and added 96 yards and one touchdown on four catches. Woodson had touchdown runs of 87, 80 and 24 yards and a 60-yard touchdown catch.
Fortunately, ACU had quarterback Mitchell Gale on its side, and Gale responded to Woodson's great night with his own heroics, completing 30 of 42 passes for 408 yards and three touchdowns.
But the Wildcats trailed 34-28 going to the fourth quarter after the Javelinas turned a Mitchell Gale fumble into a go-ahead touchdown late in the third quarter. But
Aston Whiteside blocked the PAT to keep the Wildcats down just six points.
The Wildcats then dominated play in the fourth quarter.
They took over late in the third quarter, beginning a 14-play, 80-yard drive that culminated in a 2-yard touchdown run by
Daryl Richardson that tied the game at 34 apiece.
Morgan Lineberry's PAT gave the Wildcats a 35-34 lead, an advantage they wouldn't relinquish.
"Our guys just continued to play and battle," ACU head coach Chris Thomsen said. "It's a credit to their character and resolve. We gave up a lot of big plays and that can be demoralizing to a team, but we didn't let those get us down. "
The ACU defense – which struggled throughout the night, giving up 531 yards of offense – forced a punt on Kingsville's next possession and ACU took over at its own 32-yard line with 11:38 left in the game.
After Gale hit
Darrell Cantu-Harkless for nine yards on the first play of the drive, Gale escaped for a 27-yard run to the Kingsville 32-yard line. After a personal foul penalty on ACU moved the ball back to the Kingsville 47,
Charcandrick West picked up eight yards on first-and-25 to get the ball to the Kingsville 39-yard line.
Gale then hit
Taylor Gabriel over the middle and he broke away for what would turn out to be the game-clinching touchdown pass. That play gave the Wildcats a 42-34 lead with 9:42 left in the game.
Kingsville then embarked on what it hoped would be the potential game-tying touchdown drive. Quarterback Daniel Ramirez converted a big third-and-1 from the ACU 19, running for 16 yards to the ACU 3.
But that's where ACU's defense stood up and put the game in the "W" column.
L.B. Suggs stopped Woodson for a seven-yard loss on first down, and, after an incompletion, stopped Ramirez at the 2-yard line to set up fourth-and-goal. On fourth down, Ramirez's pass was incomplete in the back of the end zone to turn the ball back over to the Wildcats.
ACU was able to run out the final 3:50 of the game, thanks to a big 9-yard run from Richardson to give the Wildcats a first down, a 12-yard run by Gabriel and 10-yard run by West that clinched the win.
"Our guys were able to get a big stop at the end of the game, and then we were able to grind out some tough yards to run out the block," Thomsen said. "Our offensive line was challenged this week by (offensive line coach)
Nathan Young to get our guys some room to run against some huge guys up front for Kingsville. Daryl worked really hard, and (fullback)
Justin Andrews played a very physical game to him some running room. Those two first downs at the end of the game were huge. I thought Charcandrick had some tough yards (Saturday); he was on the verge of breaking a couple of those for some big plays."
Gale directed an ACU offense that finished with 30 first downs and 598 yards, including 190 on the ground. Gale is now 3-0 in his career against Kingsville and has thrown for 1,114 yards and eight touchdowns in those three wins against the Javelinas. His 408-yard effort is the third 400-yard game of his career, which ties him with Loyal Proffitt for the most 400-yard passing games in program history. He also topped the 300-yard mark for the 13th time in his career, third in program history behind Billy Malone (20) and Jim Lindsey (14).
