No. 23 Nicholls remains undefeated at home with 29-20 win over ACU

THIBODAUX, La. – Lorran Fonseca kicked a single-game program record five field goals, Dontrell Taylor rushed for 130 yards and the defense came up clutch plays down the stretch, as the No. 23 Nicholls State University football team stayed undefeated at Manning Field at John L. Guidry Stadium with a hard-fought 29-20 victory Saturday in its first-ever meeting with Abilene Christian.

Nicholls trailed only once in the game after Abilene Christian (2-5, 2-3 SLC) scored on the game’s opening drive. A special teams touchdown on a blocked punt by Kevin Johnson tied the game before Taylor and Fonseca provided the points the rest of the way. Taylor scored on a 2-yard rush before halftime to make the score 20-10 and Fonseca delivered three second-half field goals.

With Nicholls leading 29-20 in the fourth, ACU drove the ball down the field to the Colonel 20. The defense stuffed a third-and-2 try, keeping the Wildcats a yard short and following two timeouts by ACU, the Wildcats elected to go for it. On the play, Hezekiah White raced into the backfield to tackle Tracy James for a 4-yard loss, giving Nicholls the ball back with two minutes remaining. The Colonels ran out the clock to improve to a perfect 4-0 at home.

“I’m very excited for the win. It was just an awesome job by our guys,” Nicholls head coach Tim Rebowe said. “We fought, I knew Abilene Christian was a good football team, but we did what we had to do at home. I just told them in the locker room that it was all three phases of the game. It was offense, defense and special teams all the way to the end. I was proud of that. We just have to worry about ourselves. We’ll take next week off and try to heal up a little bit.”

The Colonels head into the bye week with a 5-2 overall record and a 4-1 mark in league play. The start is the best for the Red and Gray since 2007.

Nicholls got off to a slow start with ACU marching down the field on the opening drive, scoring on a 34-yard catch by De’Andre Brown. It was one of two touchdown passes for Dallas Sealey, with the second cutting the Colonel lead to 26-20. He finished 30 of 48 for 323 yards, but was sacked five times. Sully Laiche led the pass rush with 2.0 sacks and Marcel Andry had 1.5.

After Nicholls went three-and-out on its first drive, the defense had two tackles for loss to pin ACU back at their own 10. On the punt, Johnson went right up the middle and swatted away the kick, and Adrian Richardson pounced on it for a touchdown.

In the second, Fonseca delivered 27- and 43-yard field goals to push to lead to 13-7. After ACU tacked one on from Nick Grau, the offense pieced together an 8-play, 66-yard drive right before the break. Fourcade accounted for 60 yards passing on the drive before Taylor capped it with his touchdown run. Fourcade finished the day with 153 yards passing on 12 of 30 attempts.

Taylor’s third career 100-yard game was highlighted by a 49-yard rush to start the third quarter. It led to a 40-yard field goal by Fonseca for a 23-10 advantage. Taylor finished the game with 20 carries, averaging 6.5 yards per tote.

ACU threatened to score later in the quarter, driving the ball to the Colonel 5 for a first-and-goal. But White and Corey Abraham stuffed two rushes and the Wildcats had to settle for a 22-yard field goal from Grau.

In the fourth, Fonseca tied the program single-game field goal record, held by Adam Diel set in 1996, with a 29-yarder. After ACU answered with a touchdown, Fonseca pushed it back to a two-possession game with his record-breaking fifth field goal from 44-yards out with six minutes to go.

ACU totaled 393 yards on offense, while Nicholls had 308. Both teams kept the offenses in check on third down with the Colonels converting on 2 of 13 and ACU was 5 of 17.

Defensively, Allen Pittman had a team-high eight tackles and Ahmani Martin finished with seven stops. The duo combined for five of the Colonels’ 14 tackles for loss.

UP NEXT

Nicholls will have next weekend off before heading into its final stretch of the season. The Colonels play three of their final four games on the road, starting Oct. 28 at UIW.