Last-minute touchdown pass lifts Texas State over Louisiana-Monroe in Sun Belt football
SAN MARCOS — It wasn’t pretty, but Texas State got its fifth victory in a season for the first time since 2014, beating Louisiana-Monroe 21-20 on a last-minute touchdown Saturday night at Bobcat Stadium.
Despite being favored by 17 points, the Bobcats trailed for most of the game, even dropping behind 20-9 in the fourth quarter after a pick six. Texas State didn’t find the end zone for more than 55 minutes but then reached it twice in the final five minutes, both times on passes from TJ Finley to Joey Hobert.
“There was no give up on that sideline,” coach G.J. Kinne said. “Those guys believed. I told them we were going to win this one because of the relationships in (the locker room) between the players, between the players and coaches. We’ve got a bunch of winners over there, and I'm really proud of those guys.
"Give a lot of credit to (Louisiana-Monroe). They had a really good game plan, and they came out and played hard. I told the guys all week this is going to be our Super Bowl, and we found a way to win. When you’re that beat up the way we were, to win a game like that is huge.”
Hobert finished with 10 catches for 110 yards, his third consecutive game with more than 100 yards receiving. He leads the team with 48 catches for 612 yards and six receiving touchdowns.
The Warhawks held the lead most of the way despite being out-gained (452 total yards for Texas State, 285 for ULM) and holding the ball for 15 minutes less than the Bobcats.
The Warhawks "played hard,” Kinne said. “They believed they could come in here and win. I knew it was going to be a shootout — not necessarily a shootout, but a dog fight. Just really proud of our guys and how they responded. That’s one of those victories that is going to be huge for this program. You can feel the momentum. A game like that, it doesn’t matter how you win, as long as you win.”
The winning score came through the air, but Texas State gained more yards on the ground than passing — 230 to 222 — for just the second time this season. Seven players registered carries for the Bobcats, led by Donerio Davenport’s 94 yards on 15 rushes.
ULM “played a light box,” Kinne said. “That’s what teams have been doing to us the last couple weeks. Most of them are playing three high safeties, basically playing prevent (defense) and daring us to run. We’ve got to be able to run it. Same thing as last week: You’ve got to be able to score touchdowns in the red zone. Good thing we’ve got a bye week coming up so we can do a self-scout and fix that. We’ve got the players to do it, we’ve got the coaches to do it, and hopefully we get healthy over this bye.”
Texas State scored on the opening drive of the game, capping a 17-play, 69-yard march with a 29-yard field by Mason Shipley. The two sides exchanged three-and-outs before ULM took the lead on its second drive, scoring on a 10-yard pass from Jiya Wright to Isaiah Woullard to make it 7-3 with 3:24 left in the first quarter.
Texas State added 34- and 47-yards field goals in the second quarter to make it a 9-7 game at the break. Shipley is 8-for-8 on field goals this season.
ULM regained the lead on two field goals by Derrick McCormick, from 47 yards in the third quarter and 22 yards to start the fourth, to make it 13-9.
The ensuing 13-play drive for Texas State was squashed by a 76-yard pick six from Ja’Terious Evans, giving the Warhawks a 20-9 lead with 8:57 left. It was Finley’s third interception this season and second pick six.
Finley recovered the next drive, ending a 13-play march with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Hobert to make it 20-15 after a failed 2-point attempt.
After a three-and-out for ULM, Finley orchestrated an 11-play drive capped by a 22-yarder to Hobert with 41 seconds left. Another failed 2-point try cemented the final score.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas State gets last-minute touchdown pass to beat Louisiana-Monroe
