Colonels crush Southeastern, win Southland

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The monkey is no longer on the backs of the Nicholls State University football team.


After a few years of tough defeats, these Colonels have beaten Southeastern.

After a drought that’s lasted more than a decade, these Colonels are Southland Conference Champions — headed to the FCS Playoffs for the second-straight year.

The Colonels crushed Southeastern 44-0 on Thursday night, avenging a couple heartbreaking losses against the Lions in years past. The Colonels also won the Southland Conference Championship for the first time since 2005, which guarantees the team the league’s automatic bid into the playoffs.


The Colonels end the regular season having won 4-straight games. Their offense has been dynamite in those wins, averaging 45 points per game. The defense hasn’t been half bad, either, allowing less than 14 points per contest in the final month — including Thursday’s shutout, which was Nicholls’ first shutout in Southland play since 2007.

Coach Tim Rebowe said he’s proud of the way the Colonels finished the season after rocky patches in both the beginning and middle stages of the year. He said he’s also proud for about a dozen players on this team who started their careers with Nicholls in 2014 when the team finished 0-12, but who will now depart the program as champions.

“I don’t know if it was like 10 or 12 of them, but I was so happy for them,” Rebowe said. “Look, that was the lowest of lows. Those guys were here and those guys stuck with us. They stuck it out and they believed in us. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, you’re from the old team.’ Everybody was starting fresh and starting over. I was just so happy for all those guys who stuck with it. … And I was so happy for our football team for getting this done.”


The Colonels put a hurting on their longtime Southland Conference rivals.

Nicholls jumped on Southeastern from the opening minutes of the game, striking first a minute into the game on a touchdown from Dontrelle Taylor — a short field set up by a forced fumble on the Lions’ first drive.

After multiple possession changes, Nicholls added to its lead on a 12-play, 52-yard touchdown drive late in the first quarter capped on a short run from freshman Julien Gums to go up 13-0 after a missed extra point.


Like they’ve done throughout the second half of the season, the Colonels dominated the game at the line of scrimmage, pounding the Lions running the football.

Nicholls rushed 61 times for 358 yards in the win. Gums led all ball carriers with 121 yards on 14 carries with 2 scores.

Taylor had 20 carries for 95 yards and a score.


Quarterback Chase Fourcade and Kendall Bussey each got in on the act, as well. Fourcade rushed 11 times for 71 yards and two touchdowns and Bussey carried 14 times for 68 yards.

After Nicholls controlled the first quarter, they blew the game open in the 2nd quarter — first on a short touchdown run from Fourcade to go up 20-0 and then on a short field goal by Lorran Fonseca to make the score 23-0 at halftime.

Nicholls didn’t let off the gas pedal in the second half.


The Colonels added a touchdown to their lead on the first drive of the second half on a short touchdown pass from Fourcade to Gabe Fuselier to go up 30-0 — an edge which held until the end of the third quarter.

Fourcade was efficient as a passer on Thursday, completing 11-of-18 passes for 128 yards and a score. He ends the regular season, completing 11 touchdowns with 0 interceptions in the final four games. He also rushed for 5 touchdowns in that same timeframe.

In garbage time, the Colonels finished with a flurry, first with a 1-yard run from Fourcade to go up 37-0 and then with a 10-yard scamper from Gums with 5 minutes left to send the game to its final margin.


In the final stages, the Nicholls sidelines were electric as players rejoiced their title with a crowd of 9,454 fans who turned out to support the Colonels.

Rebowe said winning the conference championship is an honor that the Colonels will relish forever. But he said the team is not content, adding that they will enter the playoffs with confidence and a belief that they can win games once in the bracket.

The Colonels made the playoffs last season, but lost in the opening-round in a heartbreaker — a game that wasn’t decided until literally the final play.


This time around, Rebowe believes the Colonels are battle tested and better equipped to handle that situation, which the team hopes will equate to victories in the bracket.

We’ll find out this weekend at John L. Guidry Stadium.

NSU wins


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