Nov. 20, 2004

Final Stats

HUNTSVILLE - Sam Houston State senior quarterback Dustin Long completed 26-of-45 passes for 255 yards Saturday as the Bearkats defeated Texas State 27-9 to claim a share of the Southland Conference Championship. Long, a transfer from Texas A&M, passed for a touchdown and ran for another.

Texas State, which struggled to a 2-4 nonconference start while facing three nationally-ranked Division I-AA opponents and two Division I-A teams, finished the year 5-6 and 3-2 in the SLC. Under first-year coach David Bailiff, the Bobcats were picked to finish last in the preseason conference polls but rallied to placed third in the league behind co-champions Northwestern State and Sam Houston.

"They are the 10th-ranked team in the country and when you have to come in here, you have to bring your `A' game," Bailiff said of Saturday's game. "I don't know if we did that. We had some missed opportunities and once again, when you have opportunities against these guys you have to take advantage of them."

Saturday's game was the final collegiate game for 13 Texas State seniors who Bailiff said laid a foundation for what it will take for the program to win in the future.

"We wanted to achieve something significant for these seniors because all they have done is all we have asked of them since the day we got here," Bailiff said.

Northwestern State, which had defeated both Texas State and Sam Houston, won the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs with a 37-16 win over Stephen F. Austin on Saturday. Sam Houston State, now 9-2 and 4-1, will be looking for an at-large bid to the 16-team playoff field which will be announced Sunday at noon on ESPNews.

The Bearkats led 17-9 at halftime and put the game away with a touchdown and defensive stand in the third quarter.

Long engineered a 12-play, 76-yard drive in the third quarter which started with an 18-yard pass to Jarrod Fuller and was capped by a 3-yard touchdown run by Robert Garmon to give Sam Houston State a 24-9 lead. During the series, Long converted a pair of third-down plays, tossing a 9-yard completion to Corey Roberts with the Bearkats facing third-and-3 and a 9-yarder to Fuller to move the sticks. He also tossed an 18-yard pass to Roberts to set up the touchdown run.

On the day, Sam Houston State converted 9-of-20 third-down plays.

Defensively, the Bearkats would stop Texas State near midfield on the Bobcats' next series. Facing third-and-2 from the Sam Houston 46, Douglas Sherman would be stopped for a loss of one by defensive tackle John Griffin. On fourth down, Nealy dropped back and was sacked for a 5-yard loss by blitzing defensive back Paul Donalson.

Sam Houston State would add a 27-yard field goal by Lance Garner in the period.

Nealy accounted for two Texas State turnovers in the first quarter including an errant pitch on an option run that Sam Houston converted into its first points. Bearkat defensive end Ed Jackson recovered the Nealy fumble at the Sam Houston 46.

On the first play from scrimmage, Long completed a 13-yard pass to Vincent Cartwright and running back Jason Godfrey then rumbled for 30 yards to the Texas State 11. Godfrey would run for three more yards and after a Long incompletion, the Sam Houston signal caller found Roberts open on a slant pattern for an 8-yard touchdown reception. Garner's point-after gave the Bearkats a 7-0 lead with 9:28 to play in the quarter.

Texas State would also take advantage of a turnover to score its first points.

Fuller had the ball stripped and taken away by Bobcat linebacker Jeremy Castillo who returned the ball about 15 yards before pitching to Epsilon Williams who was tackled by Long at the 12.

Making his first start since the Cal Poly game, Texas State running back Terrell Harris would carry for gains of 3, 5 and 1 yard to bring up a fourth-and-one from the three. Stan Jones would come on to kick a 20-yard field goal and cut the Sam Houston lead to 7-3 with 4:49 to play in the first quarter.

Harris, who suffered a fractured fibula in the Cal Poly game, returned to carry seven times for 24 yards in his final collegiate game after missing the previous four conference games.

After the Texas State touchdown, Long engineered a 66-yard drive to move the Bearkats inside the 10. He started the drive with a 19-yard pass completion to Bernard Campbell and also converted a pair of fourth-down down plays. Long ran for six yards on a fourth-and-1 from the 44 and later tossed a 27-yard pass to Fuller down to the Texas State 9.

On the first play of the second quarter, Long was tackled for a 2-yard loss by Epsilon Williams and on third-down, had a pass tossed in the direction of Jason Mathenia broken up by Damian Chandler. The Bearkats settled for a 25-yard field goal by Garner to up Sam Houston's lead to 10-3 with 14:41 to play in the first half.

After Nealy struggled in the first quarter, red-shirt freshman Chase Wasson came on as the Bobcats' signal caller to start the second. A short kickoff and a 14-yard return by Devin Freeman gave the Bobcats the ball at their own 41. Wasson would carry for three yards before breaking loose for what amounted to a 44-yard run before fumbling. Sam Houston's Braylon Linnear recovered at the Bearkat 12.

Nealy came back on later in the quarter and completed a 23-yard touchdown pass to John Tyson with 1:23 to play in the half. Jones' point-after would hit the upright and Sam Houston held a 10-9 lead.

Nealy completed 7-of-10 passes for 84 yards while Wasson was 3-of-12 for 19 yards and also had six carries for 65 yards.

"Barrick was struggling and had two straight turnovers," Bailiff said. "We wanted to just calm him down and let him know everything was going to be okay. Chase has won a couple ball games for us so it wasn't like we were just running a rookie in there."

Long would get the ball back in the end zone before the intermission, scoring on a 2-yard touchdown run with 23 seconds to play in the half. The series include a 28-yard Godfrey run, a pass interference call on the Bobcats and an acrobatic 18-yard catch by Fuller at the two.

Texas State could have easily been behind by more than eight points heading into intermission. On the ensuing kickoff following Long's touchdown, the kickoff skimmed across the wet turf and through the hands of returner K.R. Carpenter. Sam Houston's kickoff team could not control the ball as it bounded out of the end zone for a touchback.