A 99-yard fumble return late in the game denied Louisiana Christian what might have been a clinching touchdown, and after the Wildcats rallied to reach overtime, two penalties wrecked their bid for a go-ahead score in a 40-34 Homecoming loss Saturday at Wildcat Field in Pineville to Texas College.
LCU had gone 12 years without a game going into overtime and the Wildcats were winners of four straight Homecoming contests coming into the weekend, but both streaks came to an end.
With just over six minutes to go, the Wildcats had never trailed and were about to pad a 27-26 edge at the end of a 68-yard drive to the visitors’ 1.
But Texas College’s Kendrick Lee grabbed a fumble just in front of the goalline and raced the length of the field to put the Steers ahead 34-27 with 5:55 to go.
LCU responded by going 64 yards in 10 plays to tie the game on Levi Hilborn’s extra point after a 13-yard Daylon Charles TD run with 2:36 remaining in regulation.
Neither team threatened to score again until OT. There, the Wildcats took possession first and drew back-to-back penalties, the latter wiping out a 20-yard Charles touchdown dash. The Steers intercepted on the next play, then got the winning TD pass on their third snap in the extra period.
Louisiana Christian slipped to 2-5 overall and 1-3 in the Sooner Athletic Conference. Texas College climbed to 4-2 (2-2 Sooner) in a contest with 31 penalties assessed, 15 on the Wildcats.
LCU held the Steers to negative rushing yards as the visitors threw it all over Wildcat Field.
The LCU secondary was directly responsible for 17 incompletions via pass breakups led by David Voorhies III with a career-high four, Jahiem Mitchell and Pop McGhee logged three each, Jaden Jones and converted wide receiver Trae Grogan picked up a pair while the trio of Hayden Seneca, Nate Sullivan, and Brandon Isaac all had one.
Both Jones and Mitchell were able to snag the pigskin out of the sky for interceptions, the former’s first of his career and the latter’s fourth, combining for 13 tackles between them, Jones being the team leader at eight.
McGhee’s consistency has been unmatched over the past 18 games, notching at least one pass defended in all of them, adding a new career-best for tackles versus TC with six.
Ted Ginn found a whole bunch of open space to scamper through in the punt return facet, coming into the day having 64 yards and ending his afternoon with a stat line of five returns for 78 yards to average 15.6 yards a pop.
Charles failed to crack the century mark on the ground for the first time in four games, but he did add to his touchdown tally, finding paydirt twice as he carried the rock a career-high 23 times for 84 yards. Charles has now reached the end zone multiple times in each of the squad’s past three contests and is riding a string of five straight games with a score.
Hilborn was coffin cornering Texas College all day long, flipping the field by dropping the ball inside the Steers’ 20-yard line on four different occasions in addition to making field goals of 35 and 40 yards, the longer of the two coming at the end of the first half.
It was not the usual suspects leading the wide receiver room as Joaquin Reid hauled in a team-high eight receptions for 45 yards and Logan Malone was the top Cat at 53 yards and his first career touchdown, hooking up with River Thompson for a 42-yard connection.
Logan Brimmer is starting to heat up as the weather cools down, registering a full sack for the third straight game.
Dwayne Scott came flying in from the defensive backfield for 1.5 sacks to front the club, Kendal Rowan caused a pair of quarterback hurries while recovering his first career fumble, and Jordan Oglesby got a half-sack as well as getting up to block an extra point try.
Jy’Marion Island had the Cats’ longest play from scrimmage with a 52-yard dash up the gut, taking eight totes for a total of 69 yards and his first collegiate score while Datlan Cunningham returned to the lineup to produce 72 yards.
Thompson completed a career-best 61.9 percent of his passes (13-for-21) for 134 yards and the aforementioned touchdown to Malone.