ABILENE –
Luke Anthony threw for a career-high 370 yards and his best friend and roommate
Josh Fink had a carer-best 161 yards in catches and two touchdowns to power FCS-member ACU to a home-opening 41-24 win over NCAA Division II member Angelo State Saturday night at Wildcat Stadium.
Both teams evened their overall records at 1-1 as the two old rivals from Lone Star Conference days engaged in a game of Jekyll and Hyde in the first half.
ACU jumped to a 14-0 first-quarter lead on Anthony Field, thanks to 198 yards of offense and a pair of six-play scoring drives, while its defense allowed the visiting Rams zero yards of total offense on just 12 plays.
The Wildcats got on the board first when
Tracy James ran 26 yards for a touchdown on ACU's opening drive. Their third drive yielded another score, thanks to
Josh Fink's 43-yard pass from Anthony.
Oscar Hernandez added a 37-yard field goal early in the second quarter to build the ACU advantage to 17-0.
That's when Angelo State flipped the game, outscoring ACU 24-3, jump-started by an 88-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Larry Johnson after the Wildcats had taken their 17-0 lead. A 29-yard pick-six by Donavyn Jackson and a 41-yard field goal by Connor Flanigan gave ASU an improbable 24-17 advantage at the half, stunning the home crowd when ACU had looked on its way to a rout.
ACU steadied its ship after halftime, forging a 24-0 run in the second half to retake the lead and put away the Rams.
The Wildcats got a 14-yard Anthony-to-Fink touchdown pass, a 1-yard dive by Anthony after it looked like Fink had scored a third TD (he was ruled down short of the goal line), a 39-yard field goal by Hernandez and a 6-yard TD run by freshman
Tyrese White.
Anthony completed 34 of 55 passes, two of them to wide receiver Fink for touchdowns. Fink caught a career-best eight passes and
Tracy James rushed for 96 yards and one score to lead the Wildcats. Freshman wide receiver
Kobe Clark caught nine passes for 83 yards as he started in place of the injured
D.J. Fuller. On defense, linebacker
Jeremiah Chambers led the Wildcats in tackles with 10, while safety
Erik Huhn added eight. ACU sacked Angelo State quarterbacks four times.
ACU had not faced the Rams since 2012 and a move from the LSC to NCAA Division I.
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The Wildcats play a 6 p.m. game on the road next Saturday at Houston Baptist University to open Southland Conference play.
PLAYS THAT MATTERED
- 1Q – Tracy James ran untouched for 26 yards to score the opening points. Oscar Hernandez's successful PAT put the Wildcats on top, 7-0 with 12:17 left in the opening quarter.
- 1Q – Luke Anthony threw a 43-yard TD pass to a wide-open Josh Fink at the 7:09 mark. Hernandez' PAT increased the ACU lead to 14-0.
- 2Q – Hernandez kicked a 37-yard field goal on the second play of the quarter to put ACU up 17-0.
- 2Q – The Rams' Larry Johnson took the ensuring kickoff and returned it 88 yards for a TD. The successful PAT by Connor Flanigan made the new score 17-7 with 14:39 left in the quarter.
- 2Q – Angelo State pulled closer when Charlie Rotherham hit Lawson Ayo with an 8-yard TD pass with 9:02 remaining in the first half. The PAT by Flanigan drew the Rams to within 3, 17-14.
- 2Q – The Rams took a 21-17 lead with 1:59 left in the half when Donavyn Jackson intercepted a Anthony pass and returned it 29 yards for a TD.
- 2Q – Flanigan's 47-yard field goal as time expired in the half pushed the Angelo State lead to 24-17.
- 3Q – Fink caught a 14-yard TD from Anthony to open the third quarter, and Hernandez' PAT evened the score at 24-24 with 9:17 left.
- 3Q – What looked like Fink's third TD catch of the night from Anthony was ruled down at the 1-yard line. Anthony's QB sneak on the next play was good. Hernandez' PAT pushed ACU's lead to 31-24.
- 4Q – Hernandez booted a 39-yard field goal with 12:49 left in the game to give ACU a 34-24 advantage.
- 4Q – ACU cornerback Adonis Davis intercepted a pass by Rotherham in the end zone with 11:39 left in the game.
- 4Q – Qua'Shawn Washington recovered a Ram fumble at the 6-yard line of ASU. One play later, freshman Tyrese White ran for his first collegiate touchdown, pushing ACU's lead to 41-24 with 7:57 remaining. A 3-second drive.
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- On the scoreboard, the game's start mirrored last week's with Baylor: the home team jumped to a 17-0 lead before the visitors rebounded with a TD to make it 17-7.
- How dominant was ACU's first-quarter shutout? The Wildcats led the Rams in points (14-0), total offense (195-0) and first downs (11-0). ASU ran only 12 plays but could not muster a positive yard on offense. But after its no-show performance on offense, Angelo State flipped the game in the second quarter, scoring three straight TDs and outscoring the Wildcats 24-3 to erase ACU's lead.
- ACU has never totaled 100 offensve plays in a game, but fell 5 plays short of it tonight.
STAT CORNER
- So far in 2018, ACU knows how to stop ground games early: The Wildcats held Baylor to 8 yards of rushing in the first quarter last week, and Angelo State to none in the first quarter Saturday night.
- Josh Fink's two touchdown catches tonight equaled his total in 2017.
- Luke Anthony's 370 yards passing tonight were a personal record for the sophomore quarterback.
QUOTABLE
- "I was proud of the start we got to the game, and then how we responded to some adversity. Anytime you go out on the field you're going to face some adversity and we handled it really well in the second half (Saturday night)."
--- ACU head coach Adam Dorrel
NOTABLE
- ACU's last meeting with the Rams was in 2012, a 28-23 loss when the Wildcats were still members of the Lone Star Conference, where ASU still plays. Angelo State leads the series, 28-21-1 after Saturday night's ACU win.
- Attendance – 9,287 in a 12,000-seat venue – was likely held down by threatening skies following weeklong rain that dumped 3-6 inches of much-needed moisture around Abilene. The preciptiation ended by kickoff, however.
