By CODY STARK
The Huntsville Item
HUNTSVILLE -- Sam Houston State junior Taylor Wilkins had never kicked a game-winning field goal before, but that changed Saturday afternoon at Bowers Stadium.
After the Bearkats defense stopped Stephen F. Austin in the second overtime, Wilkins split the uprights from 28 yards out to lift Sam Houston State to a thrilling 34-31 victory.
It was a clutch kick for Wilkins, especially since he missed a 32-yard attempt that could have put the game on ice with 4:35 to go in the fourth quarter and the Kats up 24-17. But with the game on the line, the smallest guy on the field came through, handing Sam Houston its first Southland Conference win of the season.
Saturday's win also marked the fifth straight season the Bearkats (1-3 in SLC, 3-4 overall) have beaten the Lumberjacks (2-2, 4-5) in the Battle of the Piney Woods.
“I was telling myself that I got us into this mess and it's my job to get us out,” Wilkins said. “That first one I hit ? it was 32 (yards) on the right hash (mark) ? I knew as soon as I hit it that it was hooking and it had no chance. So on that 28-yarder, I made sure I stayed true to the ball and just hit a clean ball. I knew I didn't have to kill it because it was only 28 yards.
“I'm just glad coach (Todd) Whitten still has confidence in me for that last kick.”
The Bearkats led for most of the game mainly because of their ability to make big plays. Quarterback Rhett Bomar and wide receiver Catron Houston hooked up on touchdown passes of 55 and 65 yards, the latter giving Sam Houston a 14-7 lead in the second quarter.
The duo again connected on a 64-yard score on the second play of the third quarter to push the Kats' advantage to 24-7.
Bomar threw for 328 yards on 20-of-34 passing, with Houston catching four of those attempts for 190 yards.
“We didn't feel like we should be 0-3 in conference coming into this game,” Bomar said. “We haven't played up to our ability coming into this game offensive-wise. The defense has started to pick it up, but for some reason we came out strong the first couple of games of the season, and after that Central (Arkansas) game we just haven't been the same.
“In spurts we did it last week and in spurts we did it today. We just need to do it all for a complete game. Luckily we put some explosive plays together today and that saved us.”
The Lumberjacks crawled back in the game with 17 unanswered points after Houston's third touchdown. SFA's final score came with just 18 seconds left in the fourth quarter when quarterback Jeremy Moses hit wideout Duane Brooks for a 21-yard touchdown to send the game into overtime.
The Bearkats got the ball first to start the extra period and quickly started moving it from the SFA 25-yard line. On first down, Bomar hit tight end Paul Mansfield, who had six catches for 67 yards, for an 11-yard gain. Four plays later, running back James Aston punched it in from a yard out behind the blocking of fullback Matthew Powledge to make it 31-24.
SFA later scored on a 15-yard pass from Moses to Dominique Edison to send the contest to a second overtime.
This time the Lumberjacks got the ball first, but the Bearkat defense dug in. On second-and-9 from the SHSU 24, Moses fumbled the snap and lost seven yards before being sacked by defensive end Chris Brown on third down.
Moses then threw an incomplete pass on fourth down, which set up Wilkins' kick.
“We had some guys injured (on defense) and we had to play a lot of guys, so I know they were really, really tired and exhausted there in the end,” Whitten said. “I thought they stepped up, played hard and got it done.”
On paper, SFA dominated almost every meaningful offensive statistic. The Lumberjacks racked up 627 yards of total offense, ran 116 plays and had the ball for 52 minutes, 7 seconds. They also had 36 first downs.
The Kats on the other hand, only had 386 total yards, 62 offensive snaps, 13 first downs and the ball for just under 23 minutes.
But the one category SFA didn't have the advantage was turnovers.
Despite throwing for 501 yards on an eye-popping 85 passing attempts, Moses threw two interceptions, one to safety Billy Skinner and the other to cornerback Jarvis Pippens, in the first half. SFA also lost a pair of fumbles in the second quarter.
The game could have been out of hand before halftime, but Sam Houston only managed a field goal off the turnovers, this time a 19-yarder by Wilkins that gave the Kats a 17-7 lead at the break.
Still, those turnovers kept the Lumberjacks off the scoreboard, which ultimately led to Sam Houston snapping its three-game losing skid.
“I think we did a better job of flying around to the ball,” said Skinner, who also had a fumble recovery and a game-high 13 tackles. “I would look up and there would be 10 people around the ball, and if it comes out we are going to go and get it.
“I think defensively everybody did a good job of stripping the ball and reading their keys because this was a lot of film studying for us this week because they run a lot of different routes. Knowing what's coming is really important against these guys. I think everybody did a good job preparing for this game.”
