Lafayette — LeJuan Walker’s opening kickoff return of 44 yards seemed to be the highlight of the Colonel’s game as Nicholls fell to the Ragin’ Cajuns of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 20-0, in the Herbert Heyman Classic on Saturday.
Penalties played a major part in the game for both teams. Nicholls collected a total of 11 penalties for 80 yards, while ULL racked up a total of 12 penalties for 82 yards.
Josh Son, who went down with an injury in the second quarter led the Colonels in rushing with nine attempts for 31 yards, and running back Philip Brock had five rushing attempts for 20 yards.
ULL’s Jerome Coleman led his team in rushing; he rushed for 108 yards on 24 attempts.
The Colonels did not complete a single pass as backup quarterbacks Yale Vannoy and Josh Fontenot combined for 0-10 in passing.
“I just think we didn’t execute offensively, we had things that we worked on, that we prepared for and they (ULL) did exactly what we expected them to do,” said Daryl Daye, the Colonels’ head football coach.
Jon Van Cleave, ULL’s quarterback, threw for a total of 179 yards. He completed 12 passes on 26 attempts.
Marcus Wildridge led ULL in receiving yards, he caught four passes for 107 yards.
Jeremy Thompson punted the ball 10 times for an average of 44.7 yards a punt. His longest punt was 54 yards, and he put ULL inside its own 20 yardline twice.
Defensively, Todd Rivera led the team with seven tackles, while Doug King and Corey Spears each got one sack.
The Colonels started the game off with a 44-yard punt return by Walker, which put them on ULL’s 49 yardline. After a 10-yard holding penalty was called against the Colonels, Son ran the ball off of an option play for a gain of five yards.
Brock fumbled the ball on the very next play, after a gain of nine yards, and ULL recovered.
ULL then orchestrated a 12 play, 55-yard drive which would lead to the first score of the ball game.
With ULL on the Colonel’s 15 yardline, an official called a pass-interference penalty on third and ten. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was called on the Colonels immediately after the pass-interference call, and this put ULL on the Nicholls one-yardline.
ULL took an early 6-0 lead when Coleman dove over the middle into the end zone, with 8:03 left in the first quarter. Jonathon Knott’s extra point attempt was good and this made the score 7-0.
Van Cleave fumbled the ball on ULL’s next drive, and Colonel defensive lineman Burnell Taylor recovered the ball, which gave the Colonels the football with 5:47 left in the first quarter.
Son ran the ball five times on that drive, and tallied up 31 yards on that drive alone, getting the Colonels’ to ULL one yard line. Colt Coletti got the call on fourth-and-one with inches to go, but he was stopped short of the end zone by ULL’s Chris Gistorb and William Delahoussaye.
ULL’s next drive started on the Colonels 13-yardline, which was the courtesy of an illegal procedure penalty that was called on ULL off a punt return; but, ULL’s passing game would put them in Colonel territory.
Van Cleave completed a 14-yard pass on third-and thirteen on ULL’s nine yard line to Frederick Stamps, which kept ULL’s drive going. Two plays later, on third-and-three on ULL’s own 35-yardline, Van Cleave completed a 46-yard pass to Wilridge, which put ULL on the Colonel’s 23 yardline.
Four plays later, Knott completed a 45-yard field goal attempt, which increased ULL’s lead to 10-0 with 10:11 remaining in the second quarter.
Vannoy fumbled a snap on the Colonels next drive, and ULL’s Derrick Marshall was there to recover.
“I didn’t perform as well as I should have,” Vannoy said.
“The young kid (Vannoy) was big-eyed and he got in there and played, just like Josh did last year. Its a tough situation. Give him credit,” Daye said.
This put ULL on the Colonels 18 yardline. Knott completed a field goal from 33 yards out with 9:03 left in the second quarter. ULL would take a half time lead of 13-0.
ULL would score once more in the fourth quarter on a one-yard touchdown run by Coleman, which would give ULL a 20-0 lead to close out the ball game.
“Give Lafayette all the credit, their guys played very well defensively, they flew around the football and they tackled well. A lot of credit goes to them,” Daye said.
