MONROE, La.?ULM scored 30 unanswered points to defeat Arkansas State 30-13 and pick up its first win of the season Saturday evening in Malone Stadium. Warhawk running back Calvin Dawson extended his consecutive 100-yard rushing streak to an NCAA-best 10 games with 114 yards on 26 carries, despite missing all but five plays of the first quarter.
Kinsmon Lancaster completed 15-of-22 for 195 yards and two touchdowns to lead ULM (1-4, 1-1 Sun Belt). The junior single caller now has five touchdown passes on the season and moved into 10th place all-time in Warhawk history with 213 pass completions, passing Bubby Brister.
Arkansas State (2-3, 0-1) jumped out to a 13-0 lead with a pair of Josh Arauco field goals (33 and 29 yards) and a 21-yard pass from Corey Leonard to Chris Miller. Arauco would go on to miss his next two attempts (38, 43) breaking a streak of eight straight.
Leonard finished just 14-of-35 for 206 yards and a pair of interceptions, both by ULM safety Greg James, who now has nine picks just five games into his sophomore season.
Trailing 13-10 late in the first quarter, Lancaster completed two huge pass plays setting up the Warhawks on the one-yard line. First he hit Darrell McNeal for 30 yards, then found LaGregory Sapp for 29 yards. A 10-yard scramble by Lancaster separated the two plays.
Dawson had no problems crossing the goal line from that point, putting ULM up 17-13; a lead it would never relinquish. It was Dawson's 21st career touchdown tying him for second all-time in ULM history.
Cole Wilson put the Warhawks on the board at the 9:35 mark of the second quarter with a 21-yard field goal. It was Wilson's first field goal since week two at Clemson.
McNeal brought the Warhawks within three points, 13-10, with a four-yard touchdown reception from Lancaster capping an eight-play 79-yard drive with 4:17 to play in the second quarter.
ULM head coach Charlie Weatherbie opened his bag of tricks calling a fake punt with the ball on ULM's 44-yard line. Darrius Battles took the ball from punter Scott Love on a reverse and went 11 yards on a fourth-and-two play.
ULM capitalized on the play when Wilson nailed a 20-yard field goal with 3:49 to play in the third quarter extending the lead to 20-13. He would hit another kick late in the game from 20 yards out; Wilson has now made 17-consecutive field goals tying him for second-best in the nation.
McNeal caught his second touchdown of the day on a 26-yard completion from Lancaster with 9:32 to play in the game.
The Warhawks travel to Denton, Texas next Saturday for a Sun Belt tilt at North Texas. ULM defeated the Mean Green 23-3 last season.
Score Summary:
ASU ? Arauco 33 FG, 9:59, 1st 0-3
ASU ? Arauco 29 FG, 2:18, 1st 0-6
ASU ? Miller 21 pass from Leonard (Arauco kick), 13:02, 2nd 0-13
ULM ? Wilson 21 FG, 9:35, 2nd 3-13
ULM ? McNeal 4 pass from Lancaster (Wilson kick), 4:17, 2nd 10-13
ULM ? Dawson 1 run (Wilson kick), 0:45, 2nd 17-13
ULM ? Wilson 20 FG, 3:59, 3rd 20-13
ULM ? McNeal 26 pass from Lancaster (Wilson kick), 9:32, 4th 27-13
ULM ? Wilson 20 FG, 3:04, 4th 30-13
ULM Game Notes:
*
ULM honored the
1987 National Championship team at halftime.
*
ULM team
captains: Kyle Cunningham, Calvin Dawson, Ben Murphy, Kendall Mouton, Adam
Hill, Quintez Secka.
*
Running back Calvin Dawson suffered a stinger on the first play of the game and
didn't return until late in the first quarter.
*
Dawson scored his 21st-career rushing
touchdown in the second quarter, tying him for second all-time in ULM history.
*
Sophomore safety Greg James picked off his eight and ninth career passes; both
coming in the third quarter
*
ULM didn't commit
its first penalty of the game until the 12:40 mark of the fourth quarter
(illegal shift)
*
Tonight marked the first time this season that ULM's opponent didn't score on its opening
possession of the first half
*
ULM has led at the half in both home games
(17-14 vs. Tulsa)
*
ULM held its latest lead of the season when the
clock passed the 9:41 mark of the third quarter; the previous best was 17-14
vs. Tulsa
*
Darrell McNeal caught his third and fourth career touchdowns and first and
second of the season.
*
Kinsmon Lancaster moved into 10-place all-time in ULM history in career pass completions. His 15 tonight give him 213) for his career
passing Bubby Brister.
*
Cole Wilson made his 15th, 16th and 17th-consecutive field
goals. That streak is tied for second
longest in the nation behind Connor Barth (UNC) -19 and Michael Braunstein (Ohio) ? 17.
*
ULM received the opening kickoff for
the third-consecutive game; it lost the coin toss for the four time (Tulsa
won the toss and elected to receive the opening kick).
*
The ULM
starting offensive line of Kyle Cunningham, Aaron Schutz, Adam Hill, Patrick
Avinger and Larry Shappley have now started a combined 154 games between the
group.
*
Offensive tackle Kyle Cunningham and center Adam Hill extended their
consecutive games started streak to 39 games; they has started every game of
their career.
Arkansas State Quotes
Head Coach
Steve Roberts
On the game
“We have other
players who are good players and need to make plays. We have other players who
are good players that need to step up. You can't lay it on one particular group
or injury or anything like that. We had chances tonight. I'm not taking
anything away from ULM.
They did some good stuff, but we had chances to put a lot of points on the
board and get stops defensively and we didn't do it.”
On if the team
lost focus after going up 13-0
“I don't know.
I know that they played better than we did.”
Quarterback
Corey Leonard
On the game
“I think we
made a mistake in every aspect of our game tonight. Offensively we killed
ourselves. Too many times I missed wide open receivers. I have got to play better
for our team to win and our offense to be productive. I feel like personally I
did not have that good of a game tonight. We made too many mistakes tonight and
they are a good football team.”
On lowering
intensity after the 13-0 lead
“I don't want to
say it is that. I feel like we had the same intensity throughout the game. Even
though we led by 13 points it should have been by 21. We got down there and
kept getting field goals. They were able to control us even when we got the
ball moving. They wanted it more than we did.
Linebacker Ben
Owens
On easing up
after the 13-0 lead
“The defense
probably got a little lack-a-dasical and probably started feeling like we had
the game won. They (ULM)
started bringing it. Coach started about bringing it every play, but they
brought it to us.”
On the loss
“It is very
disappointing. You can't understand how disappointed the guys are on defense,
offense and special teams. The coaches put us in position with a great game
plan. It is on us to go out there and execute.”
On the play of
Calvin Dawson and Kinsmon Lancaster
“I think that
they were prepared. They came out and Dawson
made a couple of plays on a couple of big runs. Then you had Lancaster who,
whenever he didn't see anything he just tucked the ball and ran with it. They
were making the plays.”
ULM Quotes
Quarterback
Kinsmon Lancaster
On getting in
the groove on offense
“It was just
our confidence. They players on the team are expected to make plays and we did.
We just fed off each other. Our confidence is real high now.”
On the game
“This was a
must win for us if we want to get back in the conference race. Everybody just
played with their hearts and gave everything. We left everything on the field
and played great as a team.”
On gaining
momentum with the win
“It's the
start. We are back in the conference race. If you want to be a championship
team you have to keep playing great and getting better every week.”
Defensive
Tackle Kendall Mouton
“We started out
0-4 but we know that we have a championship team and a championship defense.
When we get in those situations we look to the guy on our left or on our right.
When they get in there we are thinking either three points or turnovers. We got
the job done tonight and I'm proud of our defense.”
“We have been
taking a lot of pride in everything we do as a defense. It has been in everything
we do from being on time to meetings to doing the right things in practice. We
just got tired of people putting points like that on us and stepped it up.”
Head Coach
Charlie Weatherbie
On getting the
win
“I thought
there were a lot of factors in that. I thought the offensive line did a lot of
good things all night. They protected well. Kinsmon stepped up in the pocket
and I thought our receivers ran good crisp routes. It seemed like we were
throwing and catching the ball really well. Kinsmon is capable of throwing the
ball well, it is just a matter of getting everything on the same page.”
On the play of
the offense
“We went into
the game saying we needed to throw the ball more than we did last week against Troy. We felt like we
didn't exploit our weapons. We had a lot of things working for us tonight. Of
course Calvin had another 100 plus yard game and Frank Goodin must have added
60 or so yards. When you run the ball well you can usually throw the ball well.
We did both well tonight against a very good Arkansas State
team. They will be right in the middle of the race.”
On the
importance of the game in gaining momentum
“I think it is
very important to not look past anybody. To get this win was big for us if we
want to be in the conference race. Either we are contenders or pretenders. I
think we came in and played our hearts out. We talked about leaving it all on
the field. Don't leave the field with anything left. I thought we did a real
good job of that and a real good job against a good team.”
On coming out
of the locker room at half time.
“It was also
great having the 87 national football championship team here. When we cam out
at half time and they made the tunnel for us I had goose bumps from the top of
my head to the bottom of my toes. All are players were impressed by that and I
thought that also gave us a spark.”
