LAKE CHARLES, La. – Darion Dunn returned a punt 73 yards for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter Saturday night to lift the ninth-ranked McNeese Cowboys to a 24-21 win over Abilene Christian University in a Southland Conference game at Cowboy Stadium.
The Wildcats (2-4 overall and 1-3 in the league) had gone toe-to-toe with the Cowboys (5-1 and 4-0) all night, but were forced to punt with five minutes to play, trailing 17-14.
Simon Laryea unleashed a 56-yard punt that Dunn fielded at the 27-yard line, turned it up field, cut to his left and took it untouched into the end zone for a 24-14 lead with 4:50 left in the contest.
But the Wildcats wouldn't quit as they drove 75 yards on nine plays in just two minutes, 48 seconds to a touchdown. On third-and-10 early in the drive, quarterback
Luke Anthony – who broke his own school record for completions in a game with 43 – hit freshman
Kobe Clark for 22 yards to the ACU 47 to kick-start the drive. A few plays later, Anthony rolled right, kept the play alive and found
Torin Justice down the right sideline for 36 yards to the 5-yard line.
On the next play, Anthony threw his second touchdown pass of the night as he connected with Justice for a score to cut the McNeese lead to 24-21 with 2:02 left in the game. ACU went with the onside kick, but McNeese recovered the ball and was able to run the clock down under one minute to play before being forced to punt.
ACU took over on its 1-yard line and a couple of first-down throws to
Josh Fink moved the ball out to the 25-yard line with 30 seconds left. However, Justice caught a pass on an inside screen for no gain and with no timeouts left the Wildcats had to scramble to get one more play off. They did, but Anthony was sacked by Chris Livings on the final play of the game to seal the win for the Cowboys.
McNeese entered the game ranked 25
th in the country in total defense (allowing just 327.0 yards per game) and 20
th in the country in scoring defense (allowing just 19.6 ppg), but it was outplayed by the Wildcats' defense. ACU limited the Cowboys to just 292 yards of total offense (48 rushing and 244 passing) and only 14 first downs in four quarters. The Wildcats entered the game with just nine sacks on the season, but had six sacks of McNeese quarterback James Tabary.
ACU put up 315 yards of offense, although 314 of those yards came through the air. The Wildcats had one of the country's best rushing offenses in the country, averaging 195.4 yards per game, but were limited to one yard against the Cowboys, who allow just 88.4 yards per game on the ground. The Wildcats lost 40 yards on the ground due to five sacks of Anthony.
Tracy James carried the ball seven times for 40 hard-earned yards, but the Wildcats never could generate any rushing offense.
McNeese got on the board first with a 6-yard scoring pass from Tabary to Trevor Begue with 8:15 left in the first quarter. But ACU answered with a 1-yard scoring run by Anthony with 2:55 left in the quarter. McNeese went back on top with 3:04 left in the first half with a 28-yard field goal by Gunnar Raborn. But the Wildcats took a 14-10 lead into the halftime locker room when Anthony hit
Billy McCrary from 17 yards out to complete a five-play, 60-yard touchdown drive.
The Cowboys scored the only points of the third quarter on a 1-yard run by David Hamm to regain a 17-14 lead, and then the teams traded touchdowns inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter for the final score.
PLAYS THAT MATTERED
• 1Q – On third-and-6 on its first possession, McNeese QB James Tabary threw incomplete to Kylon Highshaw, but ACU was whistled for pass interference to keep the drive alive.
•
1Q – Five plays after the pass interference penalty, Tabary hit Cyron Sutton in stride for 46 yards down to the ACU 6-yard line.
•
1Q – Two plays after the big pass to Sutton, Tabary capped the drive with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Trevor Begue to give the Cowboys a 7-0 lead.
•
1Q – After the McNeese defense forced an ACU punt the Cowboys gave the ball right back just four plays later when Tabary fumbled on a sack by
Kameron Hill and the ball was recovered by ACU's
Cole Burgess.
•
1Q – On ACU's first play,
Luke Anthony hit
Josh Fink for 24 yards down to the McNeese 24-yard line. Two incompletions later, Anthony hit
Tracy James in the left flat and he scooted down the sideline for 22 yards down to the McNeese 2-yard line.
•
1Q – Two plays after the big pass to James, Anthony snuck over from one yard out and the PAT from
Oscar Hernandez tied the game at 7-7 with 2:55 left in the first quarter.
•
2Q – Facing third-and-16 from its own 40-yard line with less than seven minutes left in the first half, ACU RB
Billy McCrary took the handoff on a draw and went left, got a couple of blocks and sprinted down the sideline, cutting back to the middle of the field around the 20 and scored. But the play was called back because of a hold and one play later ACU was forced to punt.
•
2Q – With a little more than three minutes left in the first half and McNeese facing third-and-goal at the ACU 5-yard line,
Kameron Hill came up with his second sack of the night, forcing McNeese to settle for a 10-7 lead with 3:05 in the first half.
•
2Q – On the ensuing kickoff,
Tyrese White brough the kickoff out of his own end zone and was tackled at the 10-yard line. McNeese, however, was flagged for being offsides and was forced to kick again. Alex Kjellsten's re-kick then went out of bounds, giving the Wildcats the ball at their own 40-yard line.
•
2Q – Anthony completed two quick passes and then after a 3-yard run from
Tracy James the Cowboys were whistled for a 15-yard personal foul penalty, moving the ball down to the 17-yard line.
•
2Q – On the first play after the penalty, Anthony hit McCrary on a middle screen and he did the rest, scoring from 17 yards out to give ACU a 14-10 lead with 1:24 left in the first half.
•
2Q – McNeese wasted little time driving into ACU territory, but the defense made a huge play from the ACU 35 when
Jack Gibbens tipped a Tabary pass and it was intercepted by
Koy Richardson to put an end to the first half.
•
3Q – On ACU's first offensive play of the second half, Anthony fumbled and Ronell Burbank recovered it at the ACU 16-yard line. But the Wildcats came up with a big sack on first down and then on third-and-23, Tabary threw into the end zone. However,
Adonis Davis came up with an interception to give the ball back to the Wildcats. The official at the pylon originally threw his flag and signaled pass interference on Davis, but after a conference by the officials the flag was picked up and the interception stood.
•
3Q – On first-and-10 from the ACU 43, Tabary hit Kylon Highshaw for a 42-yard gain to the 1-yard line. On second-and-goal, David Hamm scored to give McNeese a 17-14 lead with 9:41 left in the third quarter.
•
4Q – Trailing 17-14 the Wildcats were forced to punt, and McNeese return man Darion Dunn returned
Simon Laryea's punt 73 yards for a score to give the Cowboys a 24-14 lead with 4:50 left in the contest.
•
4Q – On their final scoring drive of the night, Anthony hit freshman
Kobe Clark for 22 yards to the ACU 47 to kick-start the drive. A few plays later, Anthony rolled right, kept the play alive and found
Torin Justice down the right sideline for 36 yards to the 5-yard line.
•
4Q – On the next play, Anthony threw his second touchdown pass of the night as he connected with Justice for a score to cut the McNeese lead to 24-21 with 2:02 left in the game.
NOTABLE
•
Luke Anthony broke his own school single-game record for completions of 37 with 43 against the Cowboys. He set the record of 37 last November in the Wildcats' 44-35 loss to then-No. 4 Sam Houston State.
• The Wildcats didn't run the ball until
Luke Anthony's 1-yard touchdown run on a sneak tied the game with 2:55 left in the first quarter. The Wildcats' first run by a running back was a 17-yard carry by
Tracy James with 14:02 left in the first half.
• Junior WR
Josh Fink entered the game with 98 career catches, but hit the career century mark by catching passes on each of the first two plays of the game.
• When McCrary scored on the 17-yard pass from Anthony late in the first half, it marked the first time in six all-time meetings (1972, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018) that the Wildcats ever had a lead over the Cowboys at any point in a game.
• Entering the game, McNeese had allowed these yardage totals in their five previous games: 301 at Northern Colorado, 493 vs. Houston Baptist, 362 vs. Nicholls, 291 at BYU and 188 vs. Stephen F. Austin.
QUOTABLE
"We really felt all week that we could come down here and win. We had a great week of preparation and our guys were focused on getting the job done. We knew we would have to overcome adversity, and we knew it would probably be in the fourth quarter. I'm proud of the way our guys battled and fought back. Our margin of error is slim, but we battled. We all want to win – players, coaches and everyone involved in this thing – and I believe if we continue to stay the course that it's going to get turned in our favor sooner rather than later."
--- ACU head coach Adam Dorrel
"Those guys were phenomenal and it really didn't surprise me. We had a great game plan and they were locked in on it all week. We tackled really well and went toe-to-toe with them. Now we've got to get re-focused to play an outstanding Nicholls team next week."
--- ACU head coach Adam Dorrel on the play of his defense
NEXT UP
The Wildcats will be back at home next Saturday for to take on Nicholls at 2:30 p.m. in ACU's annual Homecoming contest. The game will be broadcast on ESPN3.
