Zepeda boots Wildcats to 20-17 Halloween win over Mercer

Written by Ron Hadfield | Photos: Paul Abell

MACON, Georgia – Blair Zepeda’s 38-yard field goal as time expired spoiled a Halloween Homecoming for Mercer University and gave Abilene Christian University a 20-17 victory Saturday afternoon at Five Star Stadium. 

The win was Abilene Christian’s 500th in its 99-year history of the sport.

ACU (1-3 overall, 0-1 in the Southland Conference) had only four second-half possessions in a tight game, but turned them into 13 points and its first win of the year. Mercer closed its abbreviated fall season 0-3 but has an eight-game schedule planned for next spring.

Iowa transfer quarterback Peyton Mansell was sacked three times in the first half but rebounded in the second to complete 23 of 35 passes for 236 yards and one touchdown to lead the Wildcats to a win a week after a heartbreaking 35-32 overtime loss to Stephen F. Austin.

Jermiah Dobbins ran for ACU 89 yards and a TD, Kobe Clark caught 10 passes for 84 yards and a TD, and Zepeda kicked two field goals for the Wildcats. ACU held Mercer to 82 yards of offense in the second half.

A week after committing five turnovers in a loss to Stephen F. Austin, ACU forced fumbles on Mercer’s first two drives, then shut down the Bears in the second half, especially in the fourth when they surrendered just 11 yards. 

The game’s flow dictated that each team maximize its drives. ACU had nine overall and four in the second half. Mercer also had nine but just three in the last two quarters. 

Mercer ran the ball nearly at will in the first half, and appeared headed to a score on its opening possession when Wildcat linebacker Jack Gibbens pounced on a Bear bobble at the ACU 21-yard line. 

Three plays later, L.J. McConnell caught a bubble screen pass from Peyton Mansell and raced 57 yards to flip the field. An illegal block penalty wiped out Mansell’s 8-yard shovel-pass touchdown to Davion Johnson. On fourth-and-2 from the Mercer 9-yard line, Jermiah Dobbins scored his third rushing TD of the season to open the scoring. 

Freshman ACU defensive tackle Kadron Johnson recovered a Devon Crosby fumble on the Bears’ ensuing drive, but ACU returned the favor when Mansell lost the ball on the Mercer 25-yard line and Barron King recovered it.

Mercer returned to its time-eating ground game, moving 75 yards on 15 plays in 7:22, with Brandon Marshall running 13 yards for a TD. Caleb Dowden’s kick attempt evened the score at 7-7 with 10:41 left in the half. 

Following a three-and-out, ACU overcame 30 yards of penalties on Mercer’s ensuing drive to finally make a stand and force a 44-yard field goal try by Dowden, his longest of the season. It was good and put Mercer on top, 10-7 with 3:30 left.

The Bears got the ball back with 1:20 left in the half at their 39-yard line. A rare Mercer pass – a 48-yarder from Frost to D’Andre Johnson – set up the Bears in the red zone, and Mercer advanced to the ACU 9-yard line with just seconds to spare, but the home team could not get its field goal unit in place for a kick attempt.

ACU evened the score at 10-10 on its opening drive of the second half, when Blair Zepeda booted a 41-yard field goal at the 10:51 mark. 

Mercer employed another long drive on its first possession of the third quarter, capped by a 30-yard pass from Frost to freshman wide receive Zaach Davis that he converted into a TD with 3:52 left to give the Bears a 17-10 advantage.

ACU then took a page from the Mercer playbook with a clock-eating 7:08 drive of its own. The 14-play possession had no bearing on the scoreboard, though, when Zepeda’s 46-yard field goal attempt narrowly missed to the right. 

Adam Dorrel Postgame Interview

The Wildcats forced a three-and-out by Mercer, then went back to work on offense. Dobbins had a hand in consecutive plays requiring tough runs: a 9-yard screen pass and 18-yard run up the middle. 

Kobe Clark snagged a TD pass from Mansell with 5:49 left. Facing a 4th-and-9 from the Mercer 10, the ACU quarterback scrambled to his left before finding Clark in the back of the end zone. Zepeda’s kick tied the game at 17-all.

Gibbens turned in a huge defensive play on the next Mercer drive, pressuring Frost to underthrow a pass on third down and the Bears to punt the ball back to ACU.

With 4:33 left, the Wildcats got the ball back and never let it go. Mansell turned in two huge plays to earn first downs in Bear territory: a 15-yard scramble and a 6-yard shovel pass to Brandon Hohenstein. He also completed five of six passes in the game-winning drive.

The 12-play, clock-eating march perfectly set up Zepeda’s last-play heroics.

McConnell caught seven passes for 96 yards for the Wildcats.

Frost completed 11 of 15 passes for 126 yards and one TD. Johnson caught three passes for 62 yards and Marshall ran 10 times for 46 yards to lead the Bears on offense. Lance Wise, a safety, was credited with 20 tackles on the afternoon, including 12 solo.

Gibbens led ACU in tackles with nine and a fumble recovery. Defensive tackle Quent Titre added eight tackles.

Abilene Christian plays its first of two home games of 2020 next Saturday by hosting Angelo State in Wildcat Stadium. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. CST on Anthony Field.

PLAYS THAT MATTERED

• 1Q – Jermiah Dobbins ran 5 yards and Blair Zepeda’s successful PAT kick put ACU on top, 7-0. Scoring drive: 7 plays, 79 yards, 3:51
• 2Q – Brandon Marshall ran 13 yards for a TD and Caleb Dowden’s successful PAT kick tied the game at 7-7 with 10:41 left. Scoring drive: 15 plays, 75 yards, 7:22
• 2Q – Dowden kicked a 44-yard field goal with 10:51 left to extend Mercer’s lead to 10-7 at the half. Scoring drive: 7 plays, 35 yards, 3:30
• 3Q – Zepeda kicked a 41-yard field goal with 10:51 left to tie the game at 10-10. Scoring drive: 10 plays, 76 yards, 4:09
• 3Q – Zaach Davis caught a 30-yard TD pass from Frost and Dowden’s kick put the Bears back on top, 17-10 with 6:50 left. 9 plays, 71 yards, 3:52
• 4Q – Zepeda missed a 46-yard field goal with 14:46 left.
• 4Q – Kobe Clark caught a 10-yard TD pass from Mansell with 5:49 left to tie the game at 17-all. Scoring drive: 13 plays, 76 yards, 7:34
• 4Q – On the game’s final play, Zepeda kicks a 38-yard field goal to give ACU the win, 20-17. Scoring drive: 12 plays, 43 yards, 4:33

THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• After surrendering 210 yards of offense (and 141 on the ground) in the first half, ACU held Mercer to just 82 (and 25 rushing) in the second. The Wildcats totaled 121 yards in the first two quarters and 276 in the last two.
• ACU outgrained Mercer 397 to 292 in total offense and converted both of its fourth-down gambles in the game.
• Ball-control ruled the day: Mercer nearly doubled up the Wildcats in first-half time of possession (19:35 to 10:25) but ACU turned the tables in the second half, when they held a 23:29 to 6:31 advantage and scored on three of four possessions.

STAT CORNER

• ACU overcame six penalties for 70 yards; Mercer was flagged just once for 10 yards.
• The Wildcats are outscoring opponents 21-7 in the first quarter of games this fall, but has been outscored 43-10 in the second quarter.
• At the half, Mercer led in total offense (210-121), first downs (15-4), rushing yards (73-23), yards per rush (4-2) and on the scoreboard (10-7).

NOTABLE

• Abilene Christian never played Mercer until today but each was a common opponent of Army West Point in 2020. The Black Knights beat the Wildcats 55-23 and the Bears 49-3 earlier this fall.
• ACU’s third and final game this fall with a FBS team is a Nov. 21 matchup at Atlantic Coast Conference-member Virginia. Last season, the Cavaliers lost to No. 3-ranked Clemson in the ACC Championship Game and played in the Orange Bowl, losing to No. 6-ranked Florida, 36-28.
• Mercer University was founded in 1833 by Georgia Baptists and named for Jesse Mercer, a prominent Baptist leader and first chair of the university’s Board of Trustees. Mercer merged with Atlanta Baptist College in 1972 and ended its affiliation with the Georgia Baptist Convention in 2006 after 173 years. It enrolls 8,759 students (Fall 2019) and has schools of law, business and economics, engineering, music, theology, and medicine. The Bears were a charter member of the Atlantic Sun Conference but now field 18 teams that compete in the FCS-level Southern Conference.
• The Bears have just three games this fall (Jacksonville State, Army West Point, ACU) but an eight-game schedule in the spring with Southern Conference rivals, from Feb. 27 through April 17. They are one of four SoCo teams playing this fall.

QUOTABLE

• “I thought [our guys] were very resiliient today. Some things that went against us but I thought they played really hard. Confidence is a fragile thing, so to see what happened last week [overtime loss to Stephen F. Austin], I was very proud of our guys and our coaches.” – ACU head coach Adam Dorrel
• “We always talk about the first drive of the second half is the most important … We came down and got the field goal and I think that set the tempo for the second half of the game.” – ACU head coach Adam Dorrel
• “Dobbins did a very good job of running hard. We just have to continue to work on his fundamentals … he has very good balance and a low center of gravity.” – ACU head coach Adam Dorrel
• “They took away some of our perimeter stuff today but we made that adjustment in the second half, and we got real vertical.” – ACU head coach Adam Dorrel
• “I can’t tell you how excited we are to be at home[this week]. And we are really hoping people will come out to the game. Our guys really need support right now; to go on the road four weeks in a row … I don’t know that anybody else in the country has had to do that. It will be really nice to be at home, be in our own locker room and come out of our own tunnel.” – ACU head coach Adam Dorrel