Quarterback Jeremiah Briscoe came off the bench to pass for 211 yards including a 55-yard scoring pass to Yedidiah Louis for the winning score with 3:44 to play as Sam Houston rallied for a 42-39 playoff victory over Southern Utah Saturday.
The win in the NCAA Division I Football Championship opening round Saturday advances No. 6 ranked Sam Houston to a second round showdown with No. 4 seed McNeese State in Lake Charles, La., next week.
The Cowboys, who defeated Sam Houston 27-10 in Lake Charles three weeks ago, drew a bye as a seed Saturday. McNeese won the 2015 Southland Conference championship and the Kats were the runners-up.
Briscoe entered the game for the last drive of the second quarter with Sam Houston trailing 32-26.The sophomore quarterback was one of several key reserves who came on for injured starters to lead the Bearkats to another playoff win.
“All season long we've been talking about we had two quarterbacks we could win with,” Sam Houston head coach K. C. Keeler. “Jeremiah gets a lot of snaps with the first unit every week just so he's ready to come in for a situation like today. He had a great early part of the year and battle through a couple of injuries. It was great to have him in there.”
Sixth-year senior Ridgeway Frank posted a career high 137 rushing yards and 29 carries including touchdowns of one and two yards. Frank's second touchdown with 7 minutes left in the third quarter and a safety in the fourth period pulled the Kats to within four points 39-35.
“When you talk about guys paying their dues and working hard every day, you think about Ridgeway,” Keeler said. “He's stuck around here doing everything he can to help this team win for six years. When our top two running backs go down, Ridgeway comes in and comes through.
Freshman running back Remus Bulmer also posted his college best with 111 yards on 16 carries.
“This was a great team win,” Keeler said. “We beat a really good football team. We just keep coming back at them, even when things didn't go our way. It shows a lot of character.”
SUU quarterback Ammon Olsen completed 33 of 58 passes for 379 yards and four touchdown passes. Mike Sharp caught 8 passes for 141 yards including 3 of Olsen's TD throws.
Sam Houston jumped out to a 19-6 lead early in the second quarter. But Olsen led a Thunderbird comeback, out-scoring the Kats 26-7 in the second quarter to take a 32-26 lead into the locker room at halftime. Another scoring throw three minutes into the third quarter put the T-Birds ahead 39-26.
That's when Briscoe, Frank and Bullmer took over as Sam Houston scored 16 unanswered points to win. The Bearkats upped their record to 9-3 while Southern Utah, the Big Sky Conference champions, finished 8-4.
P. J. Hall led a Bearkat defense that slowed the Thunderbirds down enough in the second half to make the Sam Houston comeback possible. Hall total four tackles for losses including a quarterback sack. He blocked two extra points, intercepted a pass, broke up two more passes and had two big quarterback
Louis led the Bearkat receivers with eight catches for 138 yards including the game-winning score. LaDarius Brown had four catches for 44 yards.
