Colonels still chasing elusive first season win

In each of the Colonels’ four games this year, they’ve failed to execute in the second half.

They were tied at 10 with Memphis, trailed 14-7 to Northern Iowa and led Northwestern State 22-21.

Despite leading Stephen F. Austin 29-14 at halftime Saturday, the Lumberjacks outscored Nicholls (0-4, 0-2) 36-10 in the second half to claim a 50-39 win at Guidry Stadium.

Certainly losing two weeks of the season didn’t help, and head football coach Jay Thomas attributes his team’s second half woes to lack of execution and struggling to get back to form after the layoff.

Overall, it just hasn’t been the Colonel’s year. One play in Saturday’s game proved that.

Protecting a three-point lead with 3:55 to play, Colonels’ quarterback Vince Montgomery dropped back to pass on second and seven. As he released, he was hit and the ball floated straight to the Lumberjack’s Joe Savoie, who returned it 24 yards for the score.

The very next possession, Cody Barlow picked off Montgomery and took it 63 yards to seal the game.

“What else can happen to a football team this year?” Thomas said. “It’s just hard to answer. I don’t have the answer. We’re two or three weeks behind everybody else. I’m not going to make an excuse about it but that’s where we are, and it’s hurting us.”

The second half woes are not only taking its toll on the coach; the players are feeling the frustration as well.

“That is what we have been stressing all week, finishing games,” said Lardarius Webb, who returned a punt 75-yards for a score. “In the second half, we came out a little sluggish. It just fell out of our hands. It really hurts the heart of our team. We just have to keep getting up off our butts and keep running harder and harder.”

On the second play of the game, things looked good for the Colonels as Garrick Spain intercepted Lumberjack quarterback Jeremy Moses. Montgomery carried the ball in from 1 yard out on the next play to put the Colonels ahead 6-0 following a missed extra point.

Three offensive series later, Montgomery found Antonio Robinson for a 2-yard scoring strike. The lead increased to 12-0 following a failed two-point conversion attempt.

After forcing the Lumberjacks to punt on their next possession, Webb took things into his own hands, scoring on his return to put the Colonels up 19-0.

Moses put the Lumberjacks on the board with 2:53 to play in the first with a 17-yard strike to Contrevi Parks, to cut the lead to 19-7.

The Colonels eventually led 26-7 on another Montgomery run (4 yards) and took a 15-point halftime lead following a 27-yard field goal from Ross Schexnayder and a 32-yard pass from Moses to Dominique Edison.

After halftime, the Colonels found the end zone only once, on a Montgomery 1-yard run to put the Colonels ahead 39-36 with 5:26 to play in the game.

The Lumberjacks added a 3-yard touchdown run by Cornel Tarrant, another scoring pass (2 yards) to Edison, a 14-yard pass to Marcus Taylor and the two interception returns for touchdowns to mount the comeback.

Even in the loss, the Colonels remain positive, looking to defending Southland Conference champion McNeese Saturday.

“We’re going to work, from Monday through Friday, we are going to work,” Thomas said. “We’re going to get us a win. We’re 0-4 and it’s easy to fall down. We just have to work hard to get back up.”

However, if they look to stay competitive and salvage a season, the coach said the team has to capitalize on scoring opportunities and can’t give up field position on turnovers.

Otherwise, the coach said it is a matter of putting everything together for the entire game – not just two quarters. “We can taste it,” he said. “We just have to swallow it.”