HAMMOND, La. – Southeastern Louisiana running back Julius Marcalin ran for 104 yards and one touchdown Saturday night and the Lions took advantage of a pair of key Abilene Christian University turnovers as the Lions beat ACU, 31-19, in the Wildcats' season finale at Strawberry Stadium.
The loss ends ACU's season at 2-9 overall and 2-7 in the Southland Conference, while the Lions improve to 6-4 and 6-2 in the league. Southeastern will close out its season Thursday night with a game at Nicholls.
The Wildcats trailed just 21-13 at halftime and had the ball after an interception early in the third quarter at their own 10-yard line when disaster struck. Sealey was sacked and stripped of the football, and it was recovered by Jake Jiannoni, who returned it four yards for a touchdown to make it 28-13 with 10:28 left in the third quarter.
On ACU's next possession, the Wildcats got right back into the game when Sealey capped a 65-yard touchdown drive with a 48-yard scoring pass to
Josh Fink to cut the lead to 28-19 with 9:43 to play in the quarter. ACU went for two, but the pass from Sealey to
Vasquez Haynes fell incomplete.
After ACU's defense forced another punt, the offense moved smartly down to the Southeastern 5-yard line as the Wildcats looked to move to within one or two points with a touchdown and a conversion. But on second-and-goal, Sealey was intercepted by Mayori Ellison at the 4-yard line, snuffing out an ACU scoring chance. That interception led to a 10-play Southeastern scoring drive that was capped by a Jonathan Tatum field goal to give the Lions a 31-19 lead.
Sealey finished his night 28 of 45 for 300 yards and one touchdown, while Fink led ACU receivers with 102 yards and one touchdown on seven catches, the first 100-yard receiving game of his young career.
SCORING DRIVES
• 1Q (7:32) – Southeastern Louisiana converted a pair of third-and-long plays in its first drive of the game and took a 7-0 lead on a 30-yard touchdown pass from Justin Alo to Juwaan Rogers. The PAT was good by Jonathan Tatum.
10 plays, 88 yards, 4:15 (Southeastern Louisiana 7, ACU 0)
• 1Q (4:11) – ACU answered Southeastern's touchdown drive with a scoring drive of its own as placekicker
Nik Grau rescued a drive that stalled inside the red zone by hitting a 30-yard field goal, his 12
th of the season against just one miss.
10 plays, 60 yards, 3:15 (Southeastern Louisiana 7, ACU 3)
• 1Q (2:20) – Julius Marcalin had the biggest play in the drive with a 45-yard run to get the ball down to ACU's 23-yard line. A couple of plays later, Alo hit Brandon Acker with a 13-yard touchdown pass to cap the drive.
5 plays, 74 yards, 1:53 (Southeastern Louisiana 14, ACU 3)
• 2Q (11:48) – ACU took advantage of a fumbled punt by the Lions to move 12 yards in just three plays to make it a 14-10 game. On second-and-goal, running back
De'Andre Brown took a pitch from QB
Dallas Sealey and rolled right before throwing back left where Sealey was wide open. He beat a Southeastern defender into the end zone to cut the Lions' lead to 14-10.
3 plays, 12 yards, 1:08 (Southeastern Louisiana 14, ACU 10)
• 2Q (7:25) – After the ACU defense forced a three-and-out, the Wildcats put together a nice drive that reached as deep as the Southeastern 26-yard line before it stalled.
Nik Grau finished it with his second field goal of the night, a 43-yarder to bring ACU to within one point.
7 plays, 31 yards, 3:23 (Southeastern Louisiana 14, ACU 13)
• 2Q (0:38) – The Lions turned a 28-yard punt return by Torrance Mosley into a late first-half touchdown to take an eight-point lead into halftime. The drive was capped by a 2-yard touchdown run by Justin Marclin and the PAT by Jonathan Tatum pushed the Lions' lead to eight points.
4 plays, 42 yards, 1:24 (Southeastern Louisiana 21, ACU 13)
• 3Q (0:44) – After Mayori Ellison picked off a
Dallas Sealey pass inside the Lions' 5-yard line to snuff out a potential ACU score, the Lions turned that INT into a scoring drive of their own to push their lead to 31-19. Jonathan Tatum ended the drive with a 23-yard field goal.
10 plays, 83 yards, 3:36 (Southeastern Louisiana 31, ACU 19)
PLAYS THAT MATTERED
• On ACU's first-quarter field goal drive, quarterback
Dallas Sealey was 4 for 6 for 41 yards on a 60-yard scoring drive to cut the Lions' lead to 7-3.
• On Southeastern's first touchdown drive of the night, Julius Marcalin got the ball into scoring range with a 45-run to the ACU 23-yard line.
• Southeastern forced a punt late in the first quarter, but a fumbled punt return by Torrance Mosley gave ACU the ball at the Southeastern 12-yard line and three plays later, the Wildcats were in the end zone, cutting the Lions' lead to 14-10 early in the second quarter.
• ACU was forced to punt late in the second quarter and
Austin Kilcullen's punt was returned 28 yards by Torrance Mosley, setting up the Lions at the ACU 42-yard line, leading to a Southeastern touchdown late in the first half to give the Lions a 21-13 lead.
• Two plays after ACU safety
Royce Moore picked off his first pass of the season at the Wildcats' 10-yard line, Wildcat quarterback
Dallas Sealey was stripped of the ball at his own 4-yard line and Jake Jiannoni recovered and fell into the end zone to make it a 28-13 game with 10:28 to play in 3Q.
• Trailing 28-19, the Wildcats put together one of their best drives of the night as they moved to the Southeastern 5-yard line with a chance to cut into the Lions' lead. But Sealey was intercepted at the Southeastern 4-yard line by Mayori Ellison to keep ACU off the board. The interception led to a 10-play drive that ended in a Southeastern field goal.
WILDCAT PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Offense
Freshman wide receiver
Josh Fink had the first 100-yard receiving game of his career with 102 yards and one touchdown on seven catches. His one touchdown came on a 48-yard pass in the third quarter to cut the Southeastern lead to 28-19.
Defense
Playing in his final game, senior safety
D.J. Arnold had a team-high nine tackles and one pass breakup. Arnold surpassed 100 career tackles in the game, finishing with 102 tackles as a Wildcat.
NOTABLE
• Junior middle linebacker
Sam Denmark finished the game with nine tackles to give him 326 in his career. He is now seventh in ACU history in career tackles, leaving him just 63 tackles short of all-time tackles leader Ryan Boozer (388 from 1998-2001).
• Freshman wide receiver
Josh Fink had the first 100-yard receiving of his career as he finished with 102 yards and one score on seven catches. His previous career best was an 86-yard game against Incarnate Word on Oct. 22.
•
Dallas Sealey finished the season with 237 completions on the season, the sixth-best single-season total in ACU history behind Mitchell Gale (276 in both 2010 and 2011), Billy Malone (264 in 2007), John David Baker (247 in 2013) and Malone again (245 in 2006). He also threw the ball 45 times to give him 388 on the season, which is the seventh-most in a season in school history.
• With an even 300 yards passing against Southeastern, Sealey finished the season with seven 300-yard passing games in the nine full games he played.
NEXT GAME
ACU opens the 2017 season on Sept. 2, 2017, with a game at University Stadium in Albuquerque, N.M., against the New Mexico Lobos. The Wildcats' next home game will be Sept. 16, 2017, when they host Houston Baptist in a Southland Conference contest at brand new Wildcat Stadium on the ACU campus.
