ULM Warhawks

Brent Leonard caught his second touchdown pass of the game with 2:53 to play in the game to pull the Warhawks within five, 24-19; Leonard finished with 10 catches for 145 yards. The two-point conversion was not successful and the Warhawks kicked deep with all three timeouts remaining.

Arkansas State (4-2, 2-0 Sun Belt) picked up a quick first down, but the Warhawks (1-4, 0-1) held on the next two plays and Darius Prelow intercepted Ryan Aplin's third-down pass on the ULM 19-yard line; it was the third interception of the night by the Warhawks.

On ULM's ensuing possession, Kolton Browning threw an 18-yard strike to Leonard on the first play, but had to be removed from the game after taking a hit on the next play. Facing a 4th-and-10, backup quarterback Cody Wells completed a 25-yard pass to Leonard down to the Arkansas State 27-yard line.

The Warhawks fumbled the snap on first down and took a 7-yard loss. The play started with under a minute on the clock. An extra 20 seconds ran off the clock while Arkansas State defenders held onto the ball and the officials did not spot the ball ready for play.

Wells was then forced to spike the ball to kill the clock leaving ULM with just two plays to make up the 17 yards. A pair of incompletions sealed the Warhawks fate as the ball was turned over on downs.

The momentum shifted in favor of the Red Wolves late in the third quarter with the Warhawks holding on to a 13-10 lead. Don Jones blocked a punt and returned it 25 yards for an Arkansas State touchdown.

On ULM's next possession, Wells moved the Warhawks 45 yards and 13 plays, but Kelcie McCray intercepted 4^th-and-10 attempt and returned it 51 yards to the ULM 44-yard line. Aplin needed just one play to put ASU up two scores as he hooked up with Dewayne Frampton for a touchdown on the first play of the drive. Frampton finished the game with 13 catches for 147 yards.

The Warhawks outgained the Red Wolves 367-345 on the night and dominated the time of possession by over 10 minutes. Each team turned the ball over four times and there were a combined 18 penalties -- 13 by Arkansas State. ULM held Arkansas State to just 88 yards of total offense in the second half.

Browning finished 21-of-39 for 197 yards and a touchdown and Wells was 5-of-15 for 101 yards and a score; Browning was intercepted twice and Wells once. Aplin was 27-of-43 for 261 yards and a touchdown, but threw three interceptions.

Arkansas State opened the scoring with a 3-yard touchdown run by Frankie Jackson with 4:41 to play in the opening quarter. The Warhawks answered 17 seconds later as Leonard made a circus catch on a 41-yard toss from Wells to tie the game.

Justin Manton booted a pair of 25-yard field goals in the second quarter to give the Warhawks a 13-7 advantage. Brian Davis pushed a 30-yard field goal between the posts with 17 seconds remaining the half to close the gap to 13-10.

The Warhawks hit the road for the fourth time in six games next week when they travel to Troy for a Sun Belt Conference game. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. and the game will be televised live by the Sun Belt Network.

Scoring Summary

ASU - Jackson 3-yard run (Davis kick), 4:41, 1^st                                                                                                 0-7

ULM - Wells 41-yard pass to Leonard (Manton kick), 4:24, 1^st                                                                   7-7

ULM - Manton 25-yard FG, 14:13, 2^nd                                                                                                                  10-7

ULM - Maton 25-yard FG, 3:36, 2^nd                                                                                                                       13-7

ASU - Davis 30-yard FG, 0:17, 2^nd                                                                                                                           13-10

ASU - Jones 25-yard blocked punt return (Davis kick), 4:01, 3^rd                                                                13-17

ASU - Aplin 44-yard pass to Frampton (Davis kick), 13:51, 4^th                                                                     13-24

ULM - Browning 11-yard pass to Leonard (Browning pass failed), 2:53, 4^th                                          19-24

 ULM Team Notes

-ULM Team Captains were Anthony McCall, Jason Edwards, and C.C. Carpenter.

-Safety Khairi Usher earned his first start of the season.  Nate Brown opened the game at the position the first four weeks.  It was the sixth start of Usher's ULM career.

-The Warhawks won the opening coin toss for the second straight week, after losing the choice the first three games.  The Warhawks deferred possession to the second half.

-ULM forced an opponent to punt on its opening drive for the third time this season.

-Luther Ambrose's 51-yard kickoff return was his longest all-purpose gain of the season.

-298 team passing yards were the third-most for the Warhawks under head coach Todd Berry.  ULM threw for 366 yards at FIU (11/6/10) and 338 yards at FAU (10/9/10).

-55 team passing attempts were the most in the Berry Era, surpassing 45 attempts at Middle Tennessee (10/23/10).

-Brent Leonard hauled in 10 catches for a career-high 145 yards and two touchdowns.  The receiving yardage total was the most for ULM since Tavarese Maye's 146-yard performance at FIU (11/6/10).

-Leonard's 41-yard touchdown reception was the longest of his ULM career, as well as a career-long pass completion for quarterback Cody Wells.

-Wells has thrown a touchdown pass in relief in three of the team's five games in 2011.

-Maye has registered at least one reception in all 17 career games in which he has played.

-ULM has forced a turnover in 26 of 29 games under defensive coordinator Troy Reffett.  The three team INTS were a season-high for the Warhawks.

-Safety Henry Mitchell intercepted his first career pass, catching the ball off a deflection during the second quarter, for ULM's second takeaway of the evening.

-Kicker Justin Manton recorded his first multi-field goal game.  Manton connected from 23 and 25 yards.

-The Warhawks 25 penalty yards were tied for the lowest in the Berry Era (FAU, 10/9/10).

ULM Head Coach Todd Berry

Congratulations to coach Freeze and Arkansas State.  I'm very impressed with their football team and what they got done tonight.  I thought they played a very clean game, a physical game, and handled situations very maturely.  My congratulations to them and what they got done.  I'm disappointed obviously.  I just told the kids I love them to death, I really do.  This group, they will scrap and fight you for everything that's out there.  Their hearts are right, and that's the place to start from.  If you don't have any heart, then you don't have a chance.  This group's got a good heart, but apparently I'm failing them miserably because we don't do some things that I know they've been told.  It's not getting done.  That's my responsibility if it's not getting done.  We make way too many mistakes, and you can't do that if you want to be a championship team.

On how to capitalize on opportunities

We've got to make plays.  To Arkansas State's credit, every time we threw one deep, they tackled us to where we couldn't make a play.  You'd love to have those plays where you're scoring, separating.

How to explain the breakdowns in execution

While there was a new look we hadn't seen from them, we have a relatively mature group that should be able to make some changes.  Last year there were some excuses that were legitimate because you had a young team that didn't get it, everything was new to them.  What they did tonight, have we seen it before?  Maybe not this year, but at some point in time we've seen it, so it should be easy for us to remember some of those things.

Moving on to the next game

There is nothing wrong with our hearts, and as long as you have that the young men will stay captured.  I apologized to them because obviously, they're not listening to me enough.  For whatever reason, they're not taking what we tell them.  It needs to translate on Saturdays, and it's not.   

Wide Receiver Brent Leonard

We always say on the offense, if it comes down to the two-minute drill that's what we want, and we're going to win every time.  I guess tonight just wasn't the night.

The confusion surrounding ULM trying to spike the ball on the final drive

I thought it would be a delay of game on the defense, but we can't control that at all.  It's just something we have to bounce back from and score.

Hawk Darius Prelow

"(When he intercepted the ball in the 4th quarter) my teammates were looking for me to make a play, and the coaches were telling me I needed to make a play.  I saw the play-action and a receiver go off for the route, and I just read it and got the ball in my hands.

Any looks the offense showed that might not have been on film

Everything that we practiced, we saw out on the field today.  They may have run a few plays we didn't see, but we just adjusted to it and played our defense.