HUNTSVILLE – ACU's offense turned the ball over four times Saturday afternoon and the Sam Houston State defense returned two of them for touchdowns as the Bearkats rolled to a 38-21 win over the Wildcats in a Southland Conference action at Bowers Stadium.
The Wildcats hadn't lost a fumble all season entering Saturday's game, but lost three in the game – two by quarterback
Parker McKenzie and one by
Noah Cheshier – their first lost fumbles since
John David Baker was sacked and fumbled on ACU's final offensive play of the game in a Nov. 9, 2013, loss at Incarnate Word.
The first turnover of the game – a
Parker McKenzie pass that was intercepted by Eric Agbaroji – was returned 28 yards for a touchdown to give the Bearkats a 17-0 lead with 10 minutes left in the first half. ACU rallied for two late first-half touchdowns before Keshaw Hill scored on a 1-yard plunge with 1:34 left in the half to give Sam Houston a 24-14 lead at the break.
ACU's defense — which gave up 314 yards in the first half, including 227 passing yards by Jared Johnson – stiffened in the second half, allowing just 138 yards and five first downs. But two crucial fumbles proved to be ACU's undoing.
The Wildcats forced three straight three-and-outs, but the offense couldn't answer with scoring drives. After the third three-and-out, ACU took over on its own 28-yard line with 3:45 left in the third and still trailing just 24-14. But on the first play of the drive, McKenzie was sacked by P.J. Hall, who knocked the ball loose on the sack. A.J. Davis scooped up the loose ball and returned it 27 yards for a score to push Sam Houston's lead to 31-14.
Then early in the fourth quarter — after ACU's defense had forced another punt — the Wildcats were moving smartly from their own 9-yard line when McKenzie hit
Noah Cheshier over the middle of the field. Cheshier — who caught a 64-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter — rumbled down to the Sam Houston 40-yard line where he was hit and fumbled. The ball was scooped up by Trenier Orr and returned 51 yards, and the Bearkats had thwarted yet another ACU drive.
Two drives later, Sam Houston tacked on a 34-yard scoring strike from Johnson to Gerald Thomas to make it 38-14 with 4:38 to play. ACU answered with an eight-play, 74-yard drive that took 2:24 off the clock and ended with a 14-yard touchdown pass from McKenzie to
Jonathan Epps, making the final 38-21.
Sam Houston got on the board first as the Bearkats took the opening drive of the game and moved 75 yards on 10 plays to a 4-yard touchdown run by Hill to make it 7-0. ACU — which struggled to move the ball in the first half — couldn't do much of anything offensively while the defense was starting to settle in a bit.
The Bearkats tacked on a field goal to make it 10-0 with 10:07 to play in the first half, and on the first play after the kickoff, Agbaroji picked off McKenzie's pass into the right flat and returned it for a touchdown.
But the ACU offense answered with a seven-play, 64-yard drive that was capped by a 5-yard touchdown run by
De'Andre Brown, cutting the Sam Houston lead to 17-7 with 6:21 left in the first half. After the ACU defense forced a punt, the Wildcats needed just one play for McKenzie to hit Cheshier for a 64-yard scoring pass to make it a 17-14 game with 4:08 left in the first half.
That set up Sam Houston State's final drive of the first half, which resulted in the 1-yard run by Hill to give the Bearkats the 10-point halftime lead.
McKenzie finished the game 29 of 44 for 385 yards and two touchdowns, but he was sacked five times by the Bearkats. Sam Houston State's defense limited ACU to just 31 yards rushing and had the four takeaways.
Cedric Gilbert caught eight passes for 98 yards for the Wildcats.
Johnson, meanwhile, completed 26 of 34 passes for 277 yards and one score and ran for another 86 yards on 15 carries for the Bearkats.
ACU is now 4-5 on the season and 2-3 in the Southland Conference. The Wildcats will be back in action next Saturday at 2 p.m. when they take on Central Arkansas at Clark Stadium in Plano.
