Colonels get much-needed win

With the eyes of playoff selection committee watching closely, the Nicholls State University football team got some much-needed style points on Saturday afternoon in Texas.

The Colonels roared past Stephen F. Austin 34-13 on Saturday – getting the impressive win the team so-desperately needed entering play in the game.

Prior to this week, the Colonels were listed as just outside of the Football Championship Subdivision bracket forecasts, thanks to some unimpressive showings against inferior competition in the past month.

But against the Lumberjacks, Nicholls laid the wood onto its opponent, generating 570 yards of total offense in an easy win.

“This football team has worked so hard,” Nicholls football coach Tim Rebowe said this past week at his weekly radio show. “They are grinding and battling and competing. They know what’s ahead and they know there are some big games ahead. We’re just working hard and taking it one game at a time.”

On Saturday, that approach worked to perfection.

The Colonels gashed the Lumberjacks throughout the game, generating easy yardage on the ground to dominate the pace of the game.

Nicholls scored first on a short drive – a three-play, 67-yard drive capped by a 38-yard run from Kyran Irvin, which made the game 7-0 just three minutes into play.

Stephen F. Austin added a field goal on the next drive of the game to cut the lead to 7-3, but Nicholls’ offense kept churning with two successful kicks of its own by Lorran Fonseca to go up 13-3.

The Lumberjacks stole a little momentum of its own on the last play of the first half with a successful 40-yard field goal from kicker Storm Ruiz which made the score 13-6 at the break.

But in the second half, Nicholls kept pounding. The Colonels went 73 yards on their first drive of the second half – capped by a 47-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Chase Fourcade to Dai’Jean Dixon to go ahead 20-6.

Fourcade was efficient in Saturday’s win, completing 13-of-20 passes for 152 yards and two touchdowns.

But it was the ground game that did all the damage on Saturday.

After the Lumberjacks answered Nicholls’ score to cut the lead to 20-13, Nicholls dominated the rest of the game, gutting Stephen F. Austin’s defense with big gains to stay ahead of the chains.

The Colonels rushed for 418 yards in the victory on 62 attempts – a 6.7 yard per carry average.

Tahj Smith led the attack, generating 177 yards on 23 carries. Kyran Irvin did his part, too, gashing Stephen F. Austin for 160 yards on 11 carries. Each player had a touchdown.

After the Lumberjacks’ score, Nicholls cruised.

Fourcade hit Damion Jeanpiere on a three-yard touchdown strike to cap a 12-play drive and put the Colonels up 27-13 late in the third quarter.

After several defensive stops, Nicholls put the game away for good with just under five minutes left on a long run from Tahj Smith, which sent the game to its final margin.

With the win, Nicholls is now 8-2 overall and 7-1 in Southland Conference play.

They’ll likely be back in the bracket when projections come out this week.

But things can change significantly next week when the Colonels wrap up play at Southeastern Louisiana in the season finale for both teams.

Like Nicholls, the Lions are hungry for an at-large bid into the playoffs after a successful season. But unlike Nicholls, the Lions probably don’t have the resume to make the numbers work.

Southeastern started the season 5-3 and 5-1 in Southland Conference play.

But since that time, the Lions have slipped up, losing two-straight games to Sam Houston State and McNeese State to fall back to the middle of the pack in the league.

But the Lions are awfully good and they’re capable of beating Nicholls if the ball bounces their way.

Historically, the Nicholls/Southeastern game is one of the most exciting games of the year – a contest that sometimes goes down to the last play before a winner is decided. It’s also a game that’s sometimes won by the visiting team.

Last year, Southeastern beat Nicholls 44-42 in a thriller which featured almost 1,000 yards and tons of touchdowns.

A year before that, Rebowe got arguably his first true signature win as Nicholls head coach when he took the Colonels to Hammond and scored a 27-24 victory on a last-second field goal.

In this year’s game, the Colonels’ talented defense will have to contend with the Lions’ multi-faceted running attack led by Eugene Bethea, but which also features Darren Johnson and Marcus Cooper.

The Lions are limited in their passing game, having completed just 49 percent of their passes this season with several different quarterbacks.

The game will take place in Hammond and the opening kick is set for 6 p.m.

The game will be televised on Cox Sports TV and broadcast on radio on ESPN – New Orleans.

Football vs Abilene Christian 2017 (Misty Leigh McElroy/Nicholls State University) 10/14/17

Misty Leigh McElroy

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