A lightning delay, which lasted 2 hours and 30 minutes, did not dampen the spirits of the Colonel football team (1-4, 0-2) as it nearly beat the then 17th ranked Sam Houston Bearcats two Saturdays ago. The Bearcats (5-1, 2-0) beat the Colonels, 35-32, in a Southland Conference shoot-out. The Colonels played Sam Houston close, and fans and spectators alike had no idea of what the outcome of the game would be until the final ring of the buzzer in the fourth quarter.
“I can’t remember the last time we played in Guidry Stadium when it did not come down to the fourth quarter,” Daryl Daye, Colonel head coach, said.
With 9:43 left in the fourth quarter, Josh Son, the Colonel quarterback, ran for a 30-yard touchdown, which put Nicholls up 28-31, and a John Manly’s extra point helped to give the Colonels a four-point edge over Sam Houston.
The experience of Sam Houston’s senior quarterback Josh McCown would come in handy for the Bearcats as he orchestrated an eight-play, 55-yard drive, which would give Sam Houston the winning edge with a score of 35-32.
“You’ve got to give credit to Sam Houston. That guy (McCown) is a tremendous quarterback, and he makes their whole show go,” Daye said.
The Bearcats took an early 7-0 lead when McCown hooked up with wide receiver Jonathon Cooper for a 10-yard touchdown strike with 7:18 remaining in the first quarter. The combination of McCown and Cooper would prove hurtful for the Colonels once more in the first quarter as they would hook-up once more for a 42-yard touchdown pass with 2:31 left on the clock, which made the score 14-0.
The Colonels may have been down, but they were surely not out. With 12:33 left in the second quarter, Son showed off some of his speed as he outran Bearcat defenders 40 yards for Nicholls first points of the ball game.
Sam Houston extended its lead to 21-7 when McCown muscled his way into the end zone on a one-yard touchdown run with the clock at 5:52 in the second quarter. Nicholls would show some of its clock management skills two drives later, when the offense generated a 6-play, 52-second drive, which would eventually allow John Manly to put three points on the board with a 42-yard field goal.
In the top of the third quarter, Nicholls did not waste any time putting any points on the board as Colt Coletti raced 30 yards to the end zone for the Colonels second touchdown of the game with 10:41 left on the clock, which made the score 21-17.
“We ranted and raved about him (Coletti) early and everyone was waiting to see what we were talking about. Everyone saw how fast he was Saturday on the wet field.”
The Bearcats would answer the touchdown scored by Nicholls with one of their own. McCown would hit Marcus Carter for a 14-yard touchdown pass with 8:45 left in the fourth quarter, which would give Sam Houston an 11-point lead.
The Colonel offense would not fold under the pressures of a high-scoring contest, and in the top of the fourth quarter, Son completed a 67-yard touchdown pass to Phillip Brock, which put the Colonels in striking distance. Coletti ran for the two-point conversion, and the Colonels found themselves down by a field goal with a score of 28-25.
Son ran for a career high 189 yards on 23 carries, and he also passed for 93 yards. McCown got it done in the air for the Bearcats, as he passed for a total of 271 yards.
Jonathon Cooper caught eight passes for 127 yards and three touchdowns, the last which happened to be the game winning score, as he led Sam Houston in receiving yards, while Colonel running back Brock tallied up 3 receptions for 74 yards and one touchdown.
Turnovers also played a big part in this contest as the Colonels fumbled the ball a total of seven times, while losing three of them to Sam Houston. The Colonels did finish the ball game with a total of 295 yards of rushing and 93 yards of total passing.
“Our kids have to learn how to handle pressure at the end when the chips are down to make plays,” Daye said.
Sports Information provided all of the quotes and statistics for this story.
