Football | 10/15/2016 8:06:00 PM
Box Score HUNTSVILLE, Texas – Sam Houston State quarterback Jeremiah Briscoe threw for 404 yards and six touchdowns Saturday afternoon as the No. 2-ranked Bearkats ran past ACU, 48-21, in a Southland Conference contest at Bowers Stadium.
The loss drops the Wildcats to 0-7 overall and 0-5 on the season and extended their losing streak to eight straight going back to the final game of the 2015 season. The Bearkats, meanwhile, are now 6-0 and 5-0 and likely to move up to the top spot in the country in FCS football after current No. 1 North Dakota State fell to rival South Dakota State, 19-17, in a game that ended about 60 minutes before ACU's game against Sam Houston State ended.
The Wildcats' defense was more than respectable in the game's opening half, despite the fact that the Bearkats had a 27-0 lead at the break. Two of Sam Houston's first-half touchdown passes came on long third-down tipped passes that resulted in touchdown catches. ACU's defense had two takeaways in the first quarter on interceptions by freshman cornerback
Adonis Davis and junior linebacker
Sam Denmark, keeping the Bearkats off the board.
Sam Houston got its first score with 20 seconds left in the first quarter when Nathan Stewart caught a 69-yard touchdown pass from Briscoe on a ball that was tipped and in the hands of Davis before it popped into the hands of Stewart. The Bearkats scored 20 second-quarter points; to take a 27-0 lead at the break with the last touchdown coming on a ball that was tipped up in the air at the line of scrimmage by defensive tackle
LaMarcus Allen and caught on the deflection for a touchdown by Tyler Scott.
ACU's offense couldn't generate any momentum in the first half, finishing the first 30 minutes with just four first downs and 96 yards of offense. The Wildcats, however, put together a 75-yard touchdown drive on its first drive of the second half, a march that was capped by an 8-yard touchdown pass from
Dallas Sealey to
Josh Fink, cutting the Bearkats' lead to 27-7 with 12:0 left in the third quarter.
But Sam Houston State put together 21 straight points to take a 48-7 in the fourth quarter before the Wildcats got a couple of touchdown passes from
Dallas Sealey to
D.J. Fuller. Sealey finished the game 27 of 41 for 309 yards and three touchdowns, but the Wildcats couldn't muster much a running game, finishing with just 82 yards on 23 carries.
TURNING POINT
Sam Houston State scored on two tipped balls that went for touchdowns in the first half. With the game tied 0-0, Sam Houston State faced third-and-14 at its own 31-yard line when Jeremiah Briscoe dropped back and threw deep down the middle. ACU freshman cornerback
Adonis Davis – who had his first career interception in the end zone on the Bearkats' second series of the game – very nearly had another, which would have given the Wildcats the ball back with good field position. However, the ball deflected off Davis's hands and into the waiting arms of Nathan Stewart, who went the rest of the way to complete a 69-yard catch-and-run to give Sam Houston a 7-0 lead with 20 seconds left in the first quarter.
Sam Houston's final touchdown of the first half came on another tipped ball, giving the Bearkats a 27-0 lead at the break. On third-and-goal from the ACU 15, Briscoe's pass was tipped near the goal line and ended up in the hands of Tyler Scott, who fell into the end zone for another touchdown and a 27-0 advantage.
NOTABLE
• Through the season's first six games, the Wildcats had just one interception – a second-quarter pick by
Sam Denmark against Northern Colorado on Sept. 10 – but doubled that number with two first-quarter interceptions. Freshman cornerback
Adonis Davis had an interception in the end zone on Sam Houston's second possession to keep the Bearkats off the board. Denmark then put an end to another Sam Houston State drive with an interception near the sideline, tip-toeing the sideline to stay inbounds with the interception of Briscoe.
• After Saturday's first half, the Wildcats have now been outscored 186-69 in the first half this season, an average of 27-10 on the season. The 27-0 Sam Houston lead represented the first time this season the Wildcats have been shut out in the first half.
• Junior wide receiver
D.J. Fuller finished the game with eight catches for 163 yards and two touchdowns, his second 100-yard receiving game of the season. He capped his effort with a 59-yard touchdown catch-and-run from
Dallas Sealey late in the fourth quarter. He had five catches for 109 yards and one touchdown in the season-opener against Air Force.
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME
D.J. Fuller, jr, WR, Chicago, Ill.
Fuller had eight catches for 163 yards and two touchdowns to record his second 100-yard receiving day of the season. He had touchdown catches of 14 and 59 yards from Dallas Sealey, both coming late in the fourth quarter.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME
Sam Denmark, jr, LB, Las Cruces, N.M.
Denmark finished the game with a team-high nine tackles and one interception to lead an ACU defense that collected two first-quarter turnovers to help keep the Wildcats in the game. Denmark's interception was his second of the season and only the third interception by a Wildcat this season (freshman cornerback Adonis Davis had the other one, also in the first quarter Saturday).
UP NEXT
Abilene Christian returns to Shotwell Stadium next Saturday for its annual Homecoming contest, this time a 2:30 p.m. game against Incarnate Word. Saturday's game will mark ACU's final homecoming contest at Shotwell Stadium as the Wildcats will be moving into their on-campus facility, Wildcat Stadium, starting next season.
QUOTABLE
ACU head coach Ken Collums
On Facing Sam Houston State
"The No. 1 thing is that Sam Houston has a phenomenal team. In order to deal with a team like that you need things to go your way and you have to play clean in order to have a chance. In the first half, we had some things go our way, and then we had some things that didn't. A lot of times when you drop an interception, you think the worst thing that can happen is the team scores on the next play. Very rarely do you see a tipped ball end up being a touchdown. You might see that once a season, but today we saw it twice in the first quarter.
On the maturity of Sam Houston State
"We want to be where those guys are, but we're not there yet. If you just watch the game, you can see the difference. Our guys are young and skinny and their guys are old and big. We'll end up looking similar to them, but we aren't there yet. We have to remember that we're on the right track and we'll get where we need to be. But it's days like today that remind you how far we have to go."
On Dallas Sealey's performance after missing two games with a head injury
"He wasn't clean enough in the first half. I thought he competed hard and made some plays. We'll watch the film and go through some of his decision-making. But he competed hard and made some good throws in the second half. He'll only continue to get better over the last four games."
