The Warhawks came out on homecoming night and made Malone Stadium their nest as they feasted on the Texas State Bobcats Saturday.
While quarterback Garrett Smith got the offensive attack started for the Warhawks, head coach Matt Viator looked to backup quarterback Will Collins when Smith injured his lower body in the first quarter.
“He took a shot right in the shoulder. I saw it on his (Smith’s) face and I knew, so I went and grabbed my helmet, and the rest is history,” Collins said.
Two plays after Collins entered the game, he connected on a touchdown pass to R.J. Turner to make the score 17-14 early in the second quarter.
While Collins became comfortable with the Warhawks playbook, the ULM defense showed out in the second quarter.
“Everyone knew what their assignments were, and everyone was locked in,” Safety Marcus Hubbard said.
Defensive end Donald Louis Jr., who recovered a fumble in the first quarter, talked about how the defense did their job on Saturday night and finally got a win.
“It’s just the little things. We did a lot of things that we never really did in those other weeks, and it made the difference.”
The defense held Texas State to only one third down conversion through the first half and recovered fumble late to set up a 48- yard field goal by Craig Ford.
Heading into the half, the Warhawks took a commanding lead and were ahead of Texas State by a score of 33-14.
Coming out of halftime, the defense looked to keep up their first half stats and forced the Bobcats to punt on their first drive out of the gate.
However, Collins tried to force a throw out of the pocket that would result in an interception by Texas States’ Stan Knan who returned the ball for 53 yards and a touchdown to make the score 33-21.
Collins would respond by putting together an 11-play drive resulting in a score. After a couple of quarterback scrambles by Collins and a pass to receiver Brian Williams,the Warhawks marched to the Texas State 25 yard line. Soon after, running back Duke Carter would score his first career touchdown on a 9-yard rush to make the score 40-21.
With less than a minute in the third quarter, the Warhawks defense came up with another interception to give ULM good field position for their next drive, which would start the fourth quarter.
While they turned the ball over on downs, that drive the defense forced another punt to give the ball back to the Warhawks.
However when it looked like ULM was in full control, a costly turnover would make the game a lot more interesting.
With 11:30 left in the game, running back Ben Luckett fumbled the ball and Damani Alexcee returned it 50 yards for yet another Bobcat defensive score. The margin narrowed to 40-27, and the game became a fight for field position.
Texas State attempted an onside kick on the next kickoff which would result in good field position for the Warhawks near midfield. Unfortunately for ULM, the Texas State defense showed out in the fourth quarter and didn’t manage to let them have any room to run the ball.
With only ten minutes left in the game, the Texas State bobcats narrowed the margin even closer when Jones scrambled for a 16-yard touchdown. After the extra point, it became a six-point game, 40-34 ULM with 3:22 left.
Texas State played the timeout game with the ULM offense and forced a punt. The game came down to the last minute as the Bobcats looked to advance the ball.
After Jones and company moved the ball to midfield with 9 seconds left, a last second hail mary was going to decide the homecoming contest.
Luckily for the Warhawks, the pass was incomplete in the back of the endzone, and they sealed their first win since their home opener against Southern back in August.
“To create three turnovers, we played great defense. Hats off to all of our kids, but I’m really proud of the way we adjusted defensively,” coach Viator said.
The Warhawks will now head to Albuquerque, New Mexico where they will take on the New Mexico Lobos on Saturday October 22 at 8 p.m. on ESPN 3.
