HOUSTON – Saturday evening at Husky Stadium proved to be a defensive battle with visiting the McNeese Cowboys emerging as 10-0 victors over the HCU Huskies in a Southland Conference matchup.
Both teams went three-and-out on their opening drives but following a 50-yard punt by
Julian Maceri, Solo Lewis muffed the punt and
Darius Bean jumped on the loose ball to give the Huskies (4-6, 3-4 SLC) a short field with the ball on the McNeese (5-5, 4-3 SLC) 31-yard line. HCU moved the ball six yards to give
Lukasz Smolen a try from 44 yards out but his kicked missed wide right.
Later in the quarter, the Cowboys took over possession near midfield and moved the ball down to the HCU 12 and opted to go for it on fourth-and-one with the Huskies' defense making a big stop as
Jayven Anderson burst into the backfield and forced an incompletion by quarterback Jake Strong. It was the Huskies' turn to move the ball downfield, thanks in large part to a 72-yard completion from
Maddox Kopp to
Trayjen Llanas-Wilcox. The Huskies got to the McNeese seven but the visitors came up with an interception at the goal line and a return out to the 26.
The two teams again traded punts back-and-forth until the Cowboys got in range for a 37-yard field goal attempt by Deaglan Camron but his try missed wide left with 3:17 left to play in the half.
McNeese broke the scoring drought late in the third quarter after a 10-play, 77-yard drive ended in a 31-yard field goal by Camron to make it a 3-0 ballgame. The score remained 3-0 until Omiri Wiggins took a rush wide to the left and broke a 65-yard touchdown run with 2:16 left on the clock to, essentially, put the game away for the Cowboys. HCU ran 10 plays on the ensuing drive but it stalled out at the McNeese 44 with an unsuccessful fourth down try by the Huskies.
Anderson led the HCU defense with a career-high 13 tackles and added 3.5 tackles for loss, bringing his season total to 15.5, tied for third-most in a single season by an HCU player.
Darius Bean finished with 10 tackles while
Trent Zappe and
Jeremiah Queen each had eight. Zappe also was credited with HCU's lone sack of the evening.
Offensively, Llanas-Wilcox led the Huskies with 99 yards receiving on five catches. Kopp ended the evening completing 9-of-19 for 118 yards with an interception. The Huskies finished with 197 yards of offense while the visitors totaled 335 yards.
HCU will head across state lines for the team's final road game of the year, making the trip to Natchitoches, La. to face the Northwestern State Demons at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 14, at Turpin Stadium.
