Rogers isn’t the biggest, but he makes plays
September 20, 2017
Grasso overcomes severe injury, returns to the pitch
September 20, 2017
The Nicholls State University football team played nail biters with McNeese State and Texas A&M to start their season.
But on Saturday night against Prairie View, the only drama was deciding how big the Colonels’ margin of victory would be.
Nicholls dominated from start to finish in week three, scoring a 44-16 victory over Prairie View – one of the more impressive victories of the Tim Rebowe era.
The Colonels piled up 493 yards of total offense against the Panthers, completely controlling the game on both lines of scrimmage.
Rebowe said he was proud of his team for their effort – especially after a tough, physical game with Texas A&M the week prior.
“I’m proud of the way the guys came out because obviously we had a tough loss last week,” Rebowe said. “We didn’t have any hangover from it and I thought our guys really practiced hard and prepared well this week for it. We knew Prairie View had an excellent football team and could score points. I thought defensively, we did a good job of keeping them off of the scoreboard and offensively, we controlled the clock, the ball and was able to run the football.”
That the Colonels did.
Throughout the game, Nicholls pushed the pile forward, stealing the momentum from the start.
On Nicholls’ first drive, Prairie View got an interception – arguably their high point of the game.
After that, the Colonels scored touchdowns on three of their final four drives in the first quarter to take a 21-0 lead.
Halfback Kyran Irvin scored two of the touchdowns – the first on a one-yard run and the other on a 34-yard touchdown.
Irvin was huge in the win, rushing 19 times for 113 yards and two touchdowns.
The other first-quarter score was a 62-yard pass from quarterback Chase Fourcade to Mason Roberts. Like Irvin, Roberts had a big day, catching four passes for 83 yards.
In the second quarter, Nicholls didn’t let up.
The Colonels upped their lead to 28-0 early in the quarter after a nine-play, 60-yard drive was capped by a short touchdown run from Jeremy Rounds.
After a stop, Nicholls got back on the board with a 47-yard field goal from Lorran Fonseca, which made the score 31-0 with 8:25 in the half.
The scoring cooled briefly, but then flared up again before halftime. Fonseca made a 49-yard field goal with 56 seconds to play to put Nicholls up 34-0.
The Panthers got a little momentum before half and had a two-minute drive go into Colonels territory.
But the drive stalled and Nicholls forced a field goal, which sent the game to halftime with the Colonels in control by a 34-3 margin.
Prairie View coach Willie Simmons said he takes full blame for the loss, adding that he didn’t think the Panthers were ready to play.
Simmons said his team underestimated the Colonels’ home atmosphere. With Family Day festivities throughout the week in Thibodaux, the Nicholls fans showed up in droves and more than 8,000 attended Saturday’s game – one of the largest crowds of Rebowe’s tenure with the team.
“I did a poor job of getting the guys ready to play,” Simmons said. “From the very beginning, they came out flat. In our first road game in a hostile environment, you want to come out fast and we didn’t. As the head coach, I have to figure out what we need to do better as coaches to make sure the guys are ready to play physically and mentally. We’re not going to beat the good teams when we execute the way we did tonight.”
In the second half, the Colonels put the game away for good.
The Panthers got the first points of the half on a 46-yard field goal from kicker Zach Elder, but after the score, Nicholls answered with 10-straight points to go up 44-6, which put the game away for good.
The first score was a touchdown strike from Fourcade to Dai’Jean Dixon. The second was a short field goal from David McKey early in the fourth quarter.
After Nicholls got the big advantage, a lot of reserves played on both sides.
The Panthers scored a garbage time touchdown with a minute to play – an 8-yard strike from Jalen Morton to Zarrian Holcomb, which sent the game to its final margin.
With the win, the Colonels are now 2-1 on the season with three impressive showings when one considers that the loss was to an SEC West opponent.
The rest of the season, Nicholls will play Southland Conference games, including a huge challenge on Saturday against Sam Houston State – an annual power in the highly competitive conference.
Rebowe said the Colonels will need another quality week of practice to get ready for the Southland power, but the coach added that he wanted his team to enjoy the fruits of their labors on Saturday night – an impressive win.
“For us to come out like we did and have the game in control by halftime, I was proud of that,” Rebowe said.
Follow Casey on Twitter for more.
https://twitter.com/casey_gisclair
