HUNTSVILLE – The No. 12 Sam Houston Bearkats had their chance to make a statement on the national stage on Saturday afternoon and did just that, blasting No. 7 Nicholls, 71-17, at Bowers Stadium.
The Kats (2-0, 2-0 SLC) scored 30 unanswered points in the first half to take control of the game and never let off the gas against the Colonels (3-1, 2-1 SLC), forcing four turnovers and scoring twice on the defensive side in posting its largest margin of victory against a ranked team since 2017 and its largest against a top-10 team since 2011.
Eric Schmid backed up his strong Week 1 performance with another, completing 21 of his 32 passes to nine different receivers for 366 yards and six touchdowns, one shy of a single-game school record. His main target was newcomer
Jequez Ezzard who had just three grabs, but turned heads with each one as two went for scores and another for 70 yards to set up Bearkat points. He finished with 139 yards receiving on the day, while
Ife Adeyi had 89 and
Noah Smith had five grabs for 42 yards and a pair of scores.
Defensively, Sam Houston gave Colonel quarterback Lindsey Scott fits all day long, holding hinm to just 14-for-35 passing and 186 yards and racking up four sacks.
Jahari Kay turned in a huge day with five tackles, 2.5 sacks, a pair of forced fumbles and a pick-six in the second quarter that put the Bearkats up 24-7.
Sam Houston finished with 556 yards of total offense, averaging 7.9 yards per play despite only running nine plays with no total yards on its first three drives of the game. Nicholls was able to take advantage of Schmid's first interception of the season in the first quarter, converting a short field into a 14-yard touchdown grab from Scott to Dai'Jean Dixon to go up 7-0 and had a chance to up that even more one drive later when Gavin Lasseigne missed a 28-yard field goal.
The Kats then got going marching 70 yards on seven plays that ended in a 14-yard pass from Schmid to Ezzard to tie it up. One drive later the Kats went up 10-7 on a 24-yard field goal by
Seth Morgan early in the second quarter.
Schmid found
Noah Smith on the ensuing drive for a 29-yard score up the right sideline and one play later
Kameryn Alexander dislodged a pass from Scott that landed in the hands of Kay who sprinted 24 yards into the left corner of the end zone for the defensive score.
The onslaught continued for the Kats on the next drive as Schmid found Ezzard on a spectacular catch in front of the Nicholls bench for a 55-yard touchdown, helping the Kats take a commanding 30-10 lead into the break.
They would go on to add three more scores in the third quarter on a 5-yard pass to Ingram, a 6-yard pass to Smith and a 79-yard fumble recovery by
Trevor Williams after Kay forced a fumble deep in Sam Houston territory that made it a 50-10 score.
Schmid would find the end zone one more time early in the fourth quarter when he connected with
Dee Bowens from 10 yards out. The Kats went on to score two more times in the quarter on rushes by
Kyran Jackson and
Mike Dare.
Sam Houston will now hit the road for the first time this season on March 20 when they travel to Lamar to battle the Cardinals.
