A heartbreaking finish

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November 28, 2017
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November 28, 2017
TRMC set to honor Wellness Center’s Anniversary
November 30, 2017

Nicholls missed out on its chance to win a playoff game – by just one yard.

The Colonels lost to South Dakota 38-31 on Saturday afternoon – a heartbreaking defeat which ends the team’s season with an 8-4 record.

Nicholls trailed for most of the game, but gave the Coyotes all they could handle in a back and forth slugfest.


On Nicholls’ final drive, the Colonels pushed the football down to South Dakota’s 1-yard-line with less than a minute to play.

But on first down and goal, halfback Kyran Irvin fumbled the football into the end zone and the Coyotes fell atop it for a touchback, which sealed Nicholls’ fate and clinched a victory for the road team.

Irvin was initially ruled down by officials, but instant replay overturned the call and turned over the ball to the Coyotes.


Controversy surrounds the play, because several angles of the run were made available to fans and it’s hard to get a clear view which definitively shows the football loose on the turf before Irvin’s knee touches the ground.

“I thought he got in,” Nicholls quarterback Chase Fourcade said. “I thought he was down. I didn’t see the ball come out. I just saw everybody jumping on the ball. But like coach said, we can’t leave it on the refs. We had other opportunities.”

That Nicholls did.


The Colonels were stuck in the mud for a lot of Saturday’s game, making critical mistakes and turnovers which cost the team opportunities to grab control.

South Dakota struck first late in the first quarter with a one-yard touchdown run from Michael Frederick to go up 7-0 – a score set up by a Fourcade interception, which gave the Coyotes a short field.

That lead ballooned to 14-0 midway through the second quarter when quarterback Chris Streveler hit Dakarai Allen on a 20-yard touchdown strike to cap a 10-play drive.


Streveler was huge in South Dakota’s win, completing 25-of-37 passes for 378 yards and four scores. Nicholls had a hard time getting to Streveler because of a massive Coyotes’ offensive line which easily outweighed the Colonels’ defensive front.

“They were by far the biggest line (we’ve faced),” Nicholls defensive lineman Sully Laiche said. “But they weren’t the most aggressive that we’ve seen. … The quarterback got rid of the ball pretty fast, so we weren’t able to execute.”

The last few minutes of the first half were wild.


The Coyotes had the football late in the half and seemed poised to either add to their lead or take the game to the lockers up 14-0.

But on third down and 10, Austin Dickerson stepped in front of Streveler’s pass and took it 43 yards to the house for a pick-six touchdown, which cut the lead to 14-7 with 1:13 to go in the quarter.

But the Coyotes recovered and stole three points before half with another two-minute drill, which sent the game to halftime with South Dakota up 17-7.


The second half got wild.

Both Nicholls and South Dakota scored two touchdowns each in the third quarter, which sent the game to the final stanza with the Coyotes up 31-21.

Nicholls’ scores came first on a 24-yard rush from Tahj Smith and then on a 2-yard scamper from Kyran Irvin. 


After each touchdown, South Dakota answered with a score of its own on the very next drive – with a 47-yard touchdown pass, then a 75-yard touchdown pass from Streveler.

In the fourth quarter, Nicholls challenged victory.

The Colonels marched 76 yards on six plays early in the quarter – a drive capped by a 1-yard score from Smith, which cut the lead to 31-28.


After a stop, the Colonels tied the game at 31 with a 43-yard field goal from Lorran Fonseca.

But Streveler wasn’t done.

He marched his team down the field and capped a 65-yard drive with a touchdown pass to put up South Dakota 38-31 with 5:57 to play.


That set the stage for the late-game dramatics.

Nicholls went three and out after the Coyotes’ score, then stopped South Dakota and got the football back at their own 45-yard-line with 3:19 to play.

The Colonels steadily marched down the field, but faced a fourth down and 3 at the 4-yard-line. 


Fourcade pushed the ball up the middle near the goal line – short of the end zone, but across the first down sticks, which set the stage for the Colonels to play first and goal from the 1-yard-line.

On the next snap, the fumble occurred, which sealed Nicholls’ fate.

The play took several minutes for replay officials to sort out, but they overturned the original ruling and turned over the ball to the Coyotes’ – the fourth turnover of the game for Nicholls.


South Dakota took a knee on the next three snaps, which ended the game and pushed the team into the next round of the playoffs.

Coyotes coach Bob Nielson said the finish was among the wildest he’s ever seen, but he added that he was proud of his team for beating what he called a “great football team.”

“I couldn’t be prouder of our guys,” Nielson said. “That game kept swinging back and forth and back and forth momentum-wise and our guys just kept hanging in there. … This was a great crowd that helped them, and you have to find ways to win football games and our guys found a way today.


Nielson mentioned the crowd with good reason.

Nicholls drew more than 9,000 fans for Saturday’s game – the most of any FCS Playoff game played this past weekend. 

Nicholls coach Tim Rebowe said he wishes the result was different, but he was proud of his team and the Colonels’ faithful for showing out on Saturday.


The Colonels lost several seniors to graduation, but will also return several core players in 2018, which has many already forecasting that a return to the postseason is possible.

“I thought it was a fantastic finish,” Rebowe said. “These guys right here laid it on the line. We had opportunities all throughout the game. It’s a shame it came down to the last play right there, but that’s not what cost us the game. We had some chances early on. We had a group of seniors that believed in what we’re doing and these underclassmen too did a fantastic job, so the future is going to be bright for us.” •

The Nicholls State University football team was inches away from overtime on Saturday against South Dakota – literally. But the Colonels fumbled on the goal line with less than a minute to play, which turned over the football to the Coyotes, who sealed a 38-31 win. 


 

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