Football | 9/19/2014 5:24:00 PM
Gameday CentralABILENE – The ACU Wildcats return to Shotwell Stadium Saturday coming off last week's come-from-behind 38-35 win over FBS member Troy (Ala.), the program's first win over an FBS program since 1959.
Saturday's game is also the Southland Conference-opener for both ACU and Incarnate Word, which last week was blanked 58-0 by No. 1 North Dakota State in Fargo, N.D. The game will be broadcast to a regional television audience by Southland Conference TV. The game is set to kick off just after 3 p.m. from Shotwell.
The game has been designated as the P4X Foundation Classic as ACU, the P4X Foundation and the Southland Conference join forces to promote Pediatric Cancer Awareness month, which is the month of September.
Both ACU and Incarnate Word will be wearing gold helmet stickers (the color for pediatric cancer awareness) with the P4X logo across the ribbon to promote the P4X Foundation, which in the last two years has raised more than $50,000 and given away more than $30,000 to local and regional charities. For more information about the foundation, see the insert in today's game program.
Saturday's game comes one week after the Wildcats picked up their first win of the season, a three-point win that was the biggest win in head coach
Ken Collums' three-year tenure and one of the biggest regular-season wins in the 93-year history of the ACU program. The Wildcats (1-2) trailed Troy – which has made five bowl game appearances in the previous 10 seasons – by 14 points at halftime and during the third quarter before reeling off 24 straight points to take a 38-28 lead on their way to a 38-35 road win over the Trojans.
Sophomore quarterback
Parker McKenzie picked up his second Southland Conference Offensive Player of the Week honor in the first three weeks of the season with his play against the Trojans. McKenzie completed 73.5 percent of his passes in the game (25 for 34) for 312 yards and a pair of touchdown passes, one a 12-yard pass to
Monte Green-Avery and the other a 63-yard pass to
Cedric Gilbert.
The Wildcats' defense also put together a solid second-half effort as they allowed just 14 points, seven first downs and 185 total yards (43 of those on the ground and 49 of the team's 142 second-half passing yards coming on one play on Troy's final drive of the game).
The Cardinals, meanwhile, are 0-3 on the season after last week's shutout loss against the Bison, the three-time defending FCS national champion. Incarnate Word suffered a devastating blow in the first game of the season against Sacramento State when sophomore quarterback Trent Brittain of Eastland went down for the season with an ankle injury. Brittain had directed UIW to a pair of field goals on the first two drives of the season before injuring his ankle. In the 39 drives since Brittain was lost for the season, the Cardinals have scored just 10 points to give them 16 on the season.
UIW is averaging 224.3 yards and 5.34 points per game, while the defense is giving up 484.0 yards and 48.3 points per game through three weeks.
