Wildcats outlast Demons for wild 49-47 victory

ABILENE – Tracy James scored three touchdowns and Luke Anthony threw for three as Abilene Christian University overcame a second-half aerial onslaught by Northwestern State to capture a wild 49-47 win Saturday afternoon at Anthony Field at Wildcat Stadium.  
 
ACU won its third straight to move to 5-4 overall and 4-3 in the Southland Conference. The Demons fell to 3-6 and 2-5 in the league despite Shelton Eppler's six TD passes and 367 yards of passing, and 33 second-half points that made the outcome appear in doubt for ACU until the closing seconds.
 
Northwestern State missed the PAT on its touchdown that made it 49-41 with 3:09 left in the game, and after QB Shelton Eppler threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Jazz Ferguson with 1:34 to play, ACU defensive tackle Dante Hibbert stopped Jared West's 2-point run short of the goal line to keep the score 49-47.
 
ACU chewed up about one minute on its ensuing possession, turning the ball back over with 30 seconds to play. NSU moved out to the 40-yard line before Corey Smith sacked Eppler with two seconds to play, and then saw Eppler's pass to Jaylen Watson fall incomplete on the final play of the game.
 
The Wildcats held the Demons to minus-4 yards of rushing and only 113 yards of total offense in the first half while building a 24-14 lead. Seventy-two yards of the meager NSU offensive output came on two plays, although both were TD passes.
 
But the second half was a different story and nearly had a diastrous ending for ACU's slim postseason hopes.
 
Special teams miscues figured prominently in the two of the game's early scores.
 
NSU jumped to a 7-0 lead on a 42-yard pass from Shelton Eppler to Jaylen Watson, one play after ACU's Josh Fink fumbled the Demons' first punt. With 2:18 left in the opening quarter, and the Wildcats leading 14-7, Chance Pierce blocked a Parker Pastorello punt in Demon territory. Although they failed to score despite starting their drive at the NSU 29-yard line ­– turning the ball over on downs at the 20 – ACU benefitted from an ensuing 20-yard Pastorello punt that gave them the ball back at the 35.
 
Eight plays later, ACU upped its lead to 17-7 with an Oscar Hernandez 23-yard field goal.
 
NSU drew closer at 17-14 when Eppler threw a 30-yard scoring pass to a wide-open Bryson Borque with 8:22 left in the second quarter. But ACU answered with a 2-yard pass from Anthony to James with 15 seconds left, thanks to a fourth-and-5 gamble play from the NSU 27 that resulted in a big 23-yard drive-saving catch and run by Cody Ennis that enabled the Wildcats to carry a 24-14 lead into halftime.
 
ACU took the second-half kickoff and marched 75 yards in nine plays, capped by Anthony's 20^th TD pass of the season, a 2-yarder to Tyrese White, pushing the Wildcats' lead to 31-14. 
 
NSU rallied to score twice in a little more than three minutes, however, both on TD passes from Eppler to Jazz Ferguson, one of the top receivers in FCS. ACU answered with a six-play, 75-yard drive capped by James's third touchdown of the game, a 10-yard pass from Anthony with 2:53 left  in the third quarter that upped the Wildcat lead to 41-28.
 
The game's pendulum swung back once more, with Stadford Anderson's 3-yard run capping a 12-play, 64-yard drive that pulled the Demons even closer, 41-35. ACU linebacker Qua'Shawn Washington, back in the lineup after missing three games to injury, appeared to salt the game away for his team when he intercepted an Eppler pass and returned it 37 yards for a touchdown, and following James' two-point conversion run, upped the home team lead to 49-35 with 4:39 left.
 
Eppler and the Demons were not through bedeviling the Wildcats, however.
 
In less than two minutes, the junior transfer quarterback threw a 19-yard TD pass to Bourque and a 13-yarder to Ferguson – his third scoring pass of the afternoon on only four catches – to pull within two, 49-47. Sandwiched in between was a nearly costly turnover: a fumble by James at the Wildcat 28-yard line that enabled the Demons' fifth TD of the second half.
 
The Wildcat defense rose to the occasion, however, as defensive tackle Dante Hibbert stopped Jared West's PAT run attempt with 1:34 left and following an ACU punt, and defensive end Smith sacked Eppler with two seconds remaining to preserve the win. Eppler threw an incomplete pass on the final play of the game to give the Wildcats their third straight victory.
 
Eppler completed 25 of 41 passes but was intercepted three times, including by Jamar Mack at the ACU 1-yard line early in the fourth quarter, turning away a potential Northwestern State scoring drive. Ferguson caught four passes for 82 yards and three scores.
 
Anthony completed 31 of 47 passes for 344 yards and three TDs, and was intercepted once. His 271 completions for the season thus far are third-best in a season at ACU, behind Mitchell Gale's 276 in both 2010 and 2011.
 
Defensively, linebacker Jeremiah Chambers led ACU with 11 tackles and Jack Gibbens added nine. Jonathan Picone was credited with 2.5 sacks.
 
The Wildcats travel to take on Sam Houston State in a 2:30 p.m. game next Saturday in Huntsville. NSU hosts McNeese at 7 p.m. in Natchitoches, Louisiana.  
 
PLAYS THAT MATTERED

• 1Q – After holding NSU to a three-and-out to open the game, Josh Fink fumbled the Demons' punt, which was caused and recovered by Gavin Landry. One play later, Shelton Eppler tossed a 42-yard TD pass to Jaylen Watson. Austyn Fendrick's successful PAT kick gave Northwestern State a 7-0 lead with 12:56 left.
• 1Q – ACU bounced back with an eight-play, 55-yard drive that culminatd with Tracy James running 13 yards for a score. Oscar Hernandez' PAT kick evened the score at 7-7 with 10:05 left.
• 1Q – Billy McCrary capped a 10-play drive with a 4-yard TD run at the 3:42 mark, his 10^th of the season. Hernandez' kick upped the ACU lead to 14-7.
• 1Q – Chance Pierce blocked a Demon punt with 2:16 left in the quarter. Joshua James recovered the ball on the NSU 29. ACU couldn't advance the ball, however, turning it over on downs at the Demon 20 just 15 seconds later.
• 2Q – Six plays into the second quarter, Hernandez kicked a 23-yard field goal to increase ACU's lead to 17-7 with 13:02 left.
• 2Q – Eppler threw a 30-yard TD pass to Bryson Borque with 8:22 left. Fendrick's PAT made the new score 17-14.
• 2Q – With 15 seconds left, James scored his second TD of the game on a 2-yard pass from Anthony, upping ACU's lead to 24-14.
• 3Q – ACU opened the second half with a nine-play, 75-yard drive, capped by a 2-yard pass from Anthony to Tyrece White. Hernandez' PAT put the Wildcats ahead 31-14 with 12:16 left.
• 3Q – Hernandez booted his second 23-yard field goal of the game with 9:58 left in the quarter, padding ACU's lead to 34-14.
• 3Q – Jazz Ferguson caught a 25-yard TD pass from Eppler with 8:28 remaining. Fendrick's PAT kick pulled the Demons closer, 34-21.
• 3Q – Three plays later, NSU's Nicholas Ford intercepted Anthony at the ACU 39-yard line with 7:46 left. ACU forced the Demons to punt, but a roughing the kicker penalty gave NSU the ball back. Two plays later, Ferguson caught a 33-yard scoring pass from Eppler to make the new score 34-28 with 5:07 left.
• 3Q – ACU moved its lead to 41-28 when James scored his third TD of the afternoon, a 2-yard pass from Anthony.
• 4Q – NSU's Stafford Henderson bolted 3 yards up the middle to score with 7:16 remaining in the game, cutting the ACU lead to 41-35.
• 4Q – Qua'Shawn Washington's pick-6 covered 37 yards and sealed the Wildcat lead, and win. Tracy James ran in the 2-point conversion to give  a 49-35 lead with 4:39 remaining.
• 4Q – NSU took only 1:28 and six plays to travel 67 yards, with Eppler throwing his fifth TD pass of the game, a 19-yarder to Borque. Fendrick missed the PAT kick, however, leaving ACU ahead 49-41 with 3:09 left.
• 4Q – Tracy James fumbled deep in Wildcat territory, giving NSU the ball at the ACU 28 with 2:37 remaining. Two plays later, Ferguson caught his third TD pass of the game, a 13-yarder from Eppler (his sixth scoring throw of the day). Brandon Richmond was flagged for interference on the 2-point conversion pass attempt, but NSU's Jarod West's ensuing run was stopped by Wildcat defensive tackle Dante Hibbert.
• 4Q – Kalin Sadler recovered NSU's ensuing onside kick, but ACU couldn't run out the clock, punting to the Demons for one last drive. The Wildcat defense stiffened, and when Corey Smith sacked Eppler with two seconds left, and NSU's Jaylen Watson dropped Eppler's last-play pass at the NSU 40-yard line, ACU could finally exhale and claim the win.

THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Of NSU's 117 yards of total offense in the first half, 72 came on two plays: scoring passes of 42 and 30 yards. The Wildcats also held NSU to minus-4 yards of rushing in the opening two quarters.
• ACU's three second-half interceptions (by Jamar Mack, Adonis Davis and Qua'Shawn Washington) stopped the Demons' rising tide. Washingon's 37-yard INT return for a TD was ACU's first since Jonathan Epps ran one back 68 yards against Central Arkansas on Nov. 1, 2014.
• The Wildcats' 49 points are their season high, the most scored by an ACU team under head coach Adam Dorrel and the most by the Wildcats since scoring 52 in a 52-27 win over Incarnate Word on Oct. 22, 2016.

STAT CORNER

• ACU linebacker Jeremiah Chambers, who entered the game ranked 12^th in the nation in tackles, added 11 in the win over NSU.
• The Wildcats outgained the Demons 300-113 in total offense in the first half, thanks to a paltry minus-4 yards rushing on 15 carries for NSU and an 18-5 edge in first downs for the Wildcats, who held the Demons to 0-for-7 in third-down conversions.
• Eppler's six TD passes for NSU are the most against ACU since it's move to NCAA Division I.

QUOTABLE

"A lot of emotions after that one. Since we took over this program (prior to the 2017 season) we've never won a close game like that, so I'm glad we finally got over that hump and won a close game. The flip side of that – and not taking anything away from Northwestern State – but we had a roughing the punter penalty and then muffing a punt when we shouldn't have been near the ball …. Just too many things that are really disappointing, despite the win. But we kept playing to win, so there's also a lot of good things to come out of the game. We've got a three-game winning streak going into the final two games of the season and feel like we're getting better and we've got to learn how to handle success."
     --- ACU head coach Adam Dorrel

"We made a lot of critical errors that made this game closer than we would have liked, but we got a win and that's what we set out to do (Saturday)."
     --- ACU quarterback Luke Anthony
 
NOTABLE

• Last year, the Demons rallied to defeat ACU 26-23 in overtime in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Overall, ACU leads the series, 7-6, and NSU holds a 3-2 advantage since the Wildcats rejoined the Southland Conference in 2014.
• NSU receiver Jazz Ferguson, who transferred from LSU, has a school-record five 100-yard receiving games in 2018 and is among FCS leaders.
• With two games left in the regular season, ACU needs just one win to ensure the program's first winning season since 2013 when the Wildcats finished 6-5. Since then ACU has been 6-6 (2014), 3-8 (2-15), 2-9 (2016) and 2-9 (2017).
• The Wildcats' Billy McCrary entered the game as the second-leading rusher in the Southland: 691 yards overall and averaging 86.4 per game. His eye-popping average per rush was 9.2 yards. He carried the ball nine times for 28 yards and two scores, but sat out the last 2 ½ quarters with an injury.