ABILENE –
Billy McCrary ran for a long-distance score,
Luke Anthony threw two touchdown passes and Abilene Christian University's defense harassed No. 11 Nicholls in a 28-12 upset win on a Homecoming Saturday afternoon at Anthony Field at Wildcat Stadium.
ACU sacked Nicholls quarterback Chase Fourcade five times and blocked a PAT kick in its first win over a nationally ranked team in four years and the program's first win over a nationally ranked team at Wildcat Stadium. The Wildcats moved to 3-4 overall and 2-3 in the Southland Conference, while the Colonels fell to 4-3 and 3-2 in the league.
Nicholls, ranked No. 3 in the Southland with more than 430 yards of offense per game, was limited to a single TD and two field goals by the Wildcats, who had lost their previous four games against Top 25 opponents.
Anthony, the Southland's second-ranked passer, completed 20 of 33 throws for 209 yards, ran for one score and threw two others: a 65-yarder to
Kalin Sadler and a 16-yarder to
Josh Fink. McCrary ran 42 yards for the Wildcats' other touchdown. ACU sacked Fourcade three times in the first half.
A week after nearly toppling one nationally ranked Southland rival – a 24-21 loss to No. 9 McNeese State – ACU finally succeeded with another upset bid.
Anthony led his team to a touchdown on its opening drive, capping it with a 1-yard run. Nicholls threatened on its first two drives of the first quarter, but the Wildcat defense stiffened and the Colonels had to settle for field goals of 35 and 25 yards by Lorran Fonseca.
ACU looked to blow open the game in the second quarter, using a 65-yard TD pass from Anthony to
Kalin Sadler and a 42-yard scoring run from McCrary to build a 21-6 lead with just under six minutes left in the half. But the Colonels rallied with a late TD when a leaping Dai'Jean Dixon caught Fourcade's 21-yard pass in the left corner of the end zone.
But like he did in ACU's last home game,
Jamar Mack blocked the PAT kick to preserve the Wildcats' nine-point lead, to the delight of the Homecoming crowd of 10,973, the largest at Anthony Field of the 2018 season.
The only dent either team made in Wessel Scoreboard in the second half was ACU's fourth-quarter TD by wide receiver
Josh Fink. He and roommate Anthony combined on a 16-yard score four plays after the pair salvaged a fourth-and-7 dilemma on the Nicholls' 32-yard line with nine minutes left. The Wildcats gambled and Anthony answered with an 8-yard pass to Fink that extended the drive and set up the insurance score.
Fonseca missed 47-yard field goal with 8:18 left in third quarter, the Colonels' only solid shot at points in the second half.
The Wildcats' defense turned Nicholls away twice in the fourth quarter, stopping the Colonels on fourth down on both drives.
Nicholls drove 51 yards to the ACU 24-yard line with a little less than six minutes left where it faced fourth-and-1 when the Colonels decided to go for the first down. But
Dante Hibbert and
Corey Smith stopped Dontrell Taylor short of the first down, turning the ball back over to the Wildcats.
ACU was forced to punt and Nicholls took over again at its own 29 with 4:18 to play and still needing two scores to tie the game. The Colonels moved quickly into the red zone where they ran into fourth-and-6 from the 8-yard line. But Fourcade's pass to Dai'Jean Dixon was incomplete and the Wildcats took over with 2:25 to play and were able to run out the clock.
The Wildcats play Southeastern Louisiana in a 7 p.m. game next Saturday in Hammond. Nicholls hosts Incarnate Word at 3 p.m. in Thibodaux, Louisiana, for its Homecoming game.
PLAYS THAT MATTERED
- 1Q – ACU's Sema'J Davis entered the game as quarterback on third-and-2 at the Nicholls 22-yard line, and ran 19 yards for a first down. Two plays later, Luke Anthony ran 1 yard for a TD. Oscar Hernandez' successful PAT kick put the Wildcats up 7-0 on their opening drive of the game, at the 10:55 mark.
- 1Q – Lorran Fonseca kicked a 35-yard field goal for Nicholls with 7:35 left in the quarter, making the new score 7-3 in favor of ACU.
- 1Q – Fonseca connected again on a 25-yard field goal with 3:01 left.
- 2Q – Anthony found a wide-open Kalin Sadler on a post route and he ran 65 yards for a pass-and-catch TD with 11:18 left. The PAT kick from Hernandez but the Wildcats up 14-6.
- 2Q – With 5:44 left in the half, Billy McCreary raced 42 yards for a TD, his seventh of the season. Hernandez' kick made ACU's lead swell to 21-6.
- 2Q – The Wildcats' Simon Laryea chased down an errant deep snap, scrambling to the Nicholls 15-yard line before unleashing a rugby-style kick that traveled nearly 60 yards to the ACU 29; probably the best 23-yard punt fans will ever see.
- 2Q – With 1:10 left, a leaping Dai'Jean Dixon caught a 21-yard pass from Nicholls' QB Chase Fourcade. ACU's Jamar Mack blocked the PAT attempt kick from Fonseca, leaving the Wildcats ahead, 21-12.
- 3Q – Nicholls gambled on fourth-and-2 from its own 45 on the opening drive of the second half, and lost when Jeremiah Chambers tackled Fourcade for a 5-yard loss. ACU, however, could not take advantage of the turnover on downs, and had to punt.
- 4Q – ACU gambled on a fourth-and-7 on the Nicholls' 32-yard line, and converted when Anthony completed an 8-yard pass to Josh Fink. Four plays later, Anthony threw a 16-yard TD pass to Fink, and Hernandez' kick widened the lead to 28-12 with 7:58 left.
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Billy McCreary entered the game averaging 8.2 yards per carry. He averaged 9.8 on six carries in the first half, including his 42-yard scoring run.
- The victory was ACU's first home win over a Top 25 team since a 22-16 defeat of No. 13 West Alabama in 2012, when the Wildcats were still in NCAA Division II. The Wildcats' most recent win over a Top 25 team at any level was a 37-35 upset of No. 24 Stephen F. Austin in 2014.
- With today's win, ACU is 54-35-1 overall on Homecoming, including 3-2 since rejoining the Southland Conference in 2013. The team is 3-5 at Anthony Field at Wildcat Stadium since it opened in 2017.
STAT CORNER
- Jamar Mack blocked his second PAT kick of the season in the second quarter. He has one in each of the last two home games; the only two for ACU on Anthony Field at Wildcat Stadium in its first two seasons.
QUOTABLE
- "I'm very happy for our team, our players and our coaches. We've been close several times against teams the quality of Nicholls, so to get over the hump is huge for the confidence of our team."
--- ACU head coach Adam Dorrel
- "I didn't think going for a long field goal at that point was going to do us any good. We preached all week that we were going to play to win, and I wanted to show our guys that's what we were going to do. Josh ran a great route and Luke made a great throw. Huge play in the game for us."
--- Dorrel on ACU's 8-yard completion on fourth-and-7 that kept a fourth-quarter TD drive alive
- "We stressed getting over the hump all week, and we went out and did that (Saturday). We just wanted to go 1-0 this week and see where that left us."
--- Senior defensive tackle Dante Hibbert
NOTABLE
- Sophomore quarterback Luke Anthony holds school single-game records for pass completions (43, set last week) and pass attempts (67, set last November). He owns four of the top five single-game pass-completion marks in ACU history; the other QB in the top five was Loyal Proffitt. At ACU, the late Jim Lindsey is the only other player to attempt more than 60 passes in an ACU game (33 of 63 in 1970 vs. Arkansas State).
- This is only the second time ACU and Nicholls have played. The Colonels won last year in Thibodaux, 29-20.
- Nicholls opened the season Sept. 1 with the Southland's biggest upset of the year thus far: a 26-23 overtime road win over the Big 12 Conference's Kansas Jayhawks.
- The Colonels' campus hosted the 14th annual Manning Passing Academy last summer, featuring Archie, Cooper, Eli and Peyton Manning. Among camp counselors were NFL quarterbacks Andrew Luck, Krik Cousins, Andy Dalton, Marcus Mariota and Dak Prescott. In the 2018 NFL Draft, all five QBs selected in the first round were alumni of the camp.
- Two of ACU's four remaining opponents are nationally ranked: Sam Houston State and Central Arkansas. The Wildcats close the season playing each in consecutive weeks.
- Nicholls entered the game as the Southland's second-ranked scoring defense (21.5 points per game), total defense (333.8 yards per game), rushing offense (132.5 per game) and passing defense (201.3 yards per game). ACU was second in total offense (465.8 yards per game).
