ABILENE – A dominating third-quarter performance by the Abilene Christian University Wildcats propelled them to their first win of the season Saturday night as they cruised to a 49-21 win over Houston Baptist in the Southland Conference-opener for both teams at Shotwell Stadium.
The victory pushes ACU to 1-1 overall and 1-0 in the Southland Conference, while the Huskies fall to 1-2 and 0-1. ACU will be back in action next Saturday at 11 a.m. when it hosts Stephen F. Austin.
ACU trailed 14-7 early in the second quarter and led just 21-14 at halftime, thanks to touchdown runs of 9 yards by
Herschel Sims and 1 yard by
De'Andre Brown. Those two runs were about all the success the Wildcats had on the ground in the first half as the Huskies out-rushed ACU 123-18 in the game's opening 30 minutes.
But the Wildcats totally controlled the third quarter, limiting the Huskies to just nine yards of offense on six plays while scoring 21 unanswered points to take a 42-14 lead at the end of the third quarter. The Wildcats did most of their work on the ground in the third quarter as they ran 14 running plays for 114 yards with Brown carrying the ball seven times for 50 yards and Sims four times for 44 yards.
ACU quarterback
Parker McKenzie capped ACU's second-half-opening drive with an 8-yard touchdown pass to
Cedric Gilbert to give the Wildcats a 28-14 lead with 10:52 left in the game. After forcing a punt, the Wildcats moved 58 yards on nine plays to a 3-yard touchdown pass from redshirt freshman tight end
Cody Ennis to tight end
Jamie Walker. Ennis played quarterback in high school and is being used as the Wildcats' short-yardage quarterback near the goal line. That score made it a 35-14 game with 5:42 left in the third quarter.
After the ACU defense forced another punt, the Wildcats went 65 yards on seven plays with the drive ending when Sims crossed the goal line from 35 yards out to give the Wildcats a 42-14 lead at the end of the third quarter.
The Wildcats ran 24 plays for 164 yards in the third quarter and ran off 10 minutes, 47 seconds of the third-quarter clock. HBU had just nine yards on six plays and 4:13 of possession time in the third quarter.
Brown finished with 93 yards and one touchdown on 15 carries, while Sims had 78 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries. McKenzie completed 18 of 25 passes for 228 yards and three touchdowns, while
Jonathan Epps caught six passes for 86 yards and two scores.
Sophomore middle linebacker
Sam Denmark led the Wildcats' defensive effort with 12 tackles (two for loss), while freshman cornerback
Jabari Butler picked off two passes and returned them for a combined 56 yards.
Jonathan Epps had two tackles on defense, caught six passes for 59 yards and one score and had four punt returns for 50 yards.
