JOURNAL SPORTS
For the second straight week, Northwestern State’s football team found itself digging out of an early hole that was too large to overcome, while Grambling and Centenary could not find fourth quarter magic in narrow losses highlighting area college football teams Saturday.
Louisiana Tech was idle and hosts Army this Saturday.
NORTHWESTERN: For the second straight week, the Demons showed flashes that they are closer than the final score may indicate. But they have to start better than 21 down at Weber State last weekend, and again by the same first-quarter spread Saturday at home against a Southeastern Louisiana team coming off a 38-35 upset at ULM.
NSU (0-5, 0-2) trailed 28-0 in the second quarter before a pair of explosive scoring drives signalled a response, but the early advantage built on the heels of the Southeastern (3-2, 1-1) running game proved too much to overcome in a 52-21 loss Saturday night at Turpin Stadium.
“I think we played close to the exact same football game two weeks in a row,” Northwestern head coach Blaine McCorkle said. “Found ourselves down in a hurry with some mistakes and (then) proved to ourselves we can play with a lot of people at this level in this country. We’re proving on a down-by-down basis that we can play with people, we’ve just got to be more consistent to give ourselves a chance. The little things are killing us right now.”
The Demons missed a field goal on their opening possession, with kicker Payne Williams III getting injured as he made the attempt, spoiling an excellent opening drive. The Lions went down the field in nine plays to get on the board first, recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff return, and added to the lead four plays later to make it 14-0 just over 10 minutes into the game.
A big play late in the first half got the Demons on the board when quarterback Zach Wilcke found Brendan Webb for a 43-yard touchdown. Wilcke took advantage of a free play after the Lions were flagged for being offside and lofted the ball down the field to Webb.
After a Lion field goal to answer Webb’s touchdown, the Demons needed just five plays to travel 75 yards on the ensuing possession. Back-to-back explosive plays, an 18-yard end-around by Webb and a 39-yard completion to Zay Davis, helped set up Camryn Davis for the first of his two highlight-reel touchdown catches.
“Those are two talented, young players that are getting better, just like a lot of guys on our team,” McCorkle said. “Happy for Cam getting two touchdowns today and Brendan is a big play guy. We’ve got a lot of guys in that room that can make plays.”
GRAMBLING: The Tigers (2-2 overall, 0-1 SWAC) pushed defending Southwestern Athletic Conference champion Prairie View but couldn’t sustain enough offense to overcome a a 21-14 deficit in the fourth period.
Grambling led 7-0 in the second quarter before Prairie View (2-3, 2-0) scored 14 unanswered points across the third and fourth quarters to take a 21-7 advantage. The Tigers drew within one score with 3:10 left on Tyson George’s 47-yard reception from Jacobe Robinson, but the Panthers didn’t surrender possession afterward.
Grambling finished with 265 yards of total offense, including 193 passing yards, while Prairie View posted 317 yards in a defensive slugfest at the Cotton Bowl in the annual State Fair Classic between the schools.
CENTENARY: The Gents dropped a14-7 heartbreaker to Schreiner’s Mountaineers in a non-conference game at Atkins Field, getting on the scoreboard with 5:07 remaining but a closing 40-yard drive stalled out at the visitors’ 40 in the final seconds.
The Gents (0-3) had four different players throw passes as they tried to mount some offense. Keegan Davis threw a 44-yard touchdown pass to Theo Dunn to give Centenary a late chance to tie the game.
The Mountaineers (3-1), in their first season of NCAA Division III football competition, outgained Centenary by 100 yards, 390-290, as each team suffered three turnovers.