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And, of course, what Hardin-Simmons (Texas) did to make the most of them. The Cowboys rallied from a three-touchdown deficit late in the third quarter to shock
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UW-La Crosse's Eric Donaval breaks away from Hardin-Simmons' Paul Girard on a run in the first quarter.
Erik Daily |
UW-L 24-23 Saturday night at Maxwell Field at Alltel Stadium.
Hardin-Simmons’ furious comeback took a hit with just under four minutes left in the fourth quarter on a safety, but the Cowboys picked up their momentum and won the game on a low, line drive 25-yard field goal by Matt Fields with two seconds left. It appeared that an Eagles player got a partial tip on the ball, but it squirted through anyway.
The game was eerily similar to several UW-L losses last year, starting with Whitewater’s comeback from 18 points down, and Eau Claire and Platteville kicked last second field goals to beat the Eagles.
Those losses weren’t on Terry’s mind. It was the letdowns, especially four turnovers, in what looked like a very winnable game against the Cowboys.
“There’s a lot of things we’ve got to get better at,” Terry said.
UW-L tailback Eric Donoval rushed for a career-high 166 yards and three touchdowns and had 245 all-purpose yards. But Donoval could have used one more yard. He was stopped just short of the end zone on a fourth-down dive play late in the fourth quarter with the game tied 21-21. The Eagles got a safety on the next play for a temporary lead.
Terry said he thought about trying a field goal instead of calling Donoval’s number.
“It’s a what-if and it’s after the fact,” Terry said. “Yeah, we should have kicked the field goal if you look back on it, but up to that point, we had been hammering it pretty good on the ground. We were just trying to win the game by running it there.”
Donoval, a senior who worked his way up the tailback depth chart to become the Eagles’ workhorse this season, said the offense needed to make a few more plays.
“It was just a few mistakes on offense,” Donoval said. “This is what we’ve been talking about, finishing strong. It’s tough to fight the whole game and come up short at the end.”
The last time the teams met, UW-L racked up 662 total yards of offense, third-most in school history, en route to a 47-21 win. That game saw Eagles quarterback Griffin Moe complete his first 14 passes and finish with 324 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.
It was not that kind of a game this time, as Hardin-Simmons outgained UW-L 310-303. The Cowboys’ defense did everything it could not to let Moe pick them apart again, and they were successful. Moe completed 15 of 23 passes for 109 yards with two interceptions, both tipped balls off the hands of his receivers.
“They were not going to give up the deep ball to us, and they did a good job,” Terry said.
The UW-L defense survived a major stress test in the first quarter. The Cowboys twice drove deep into Eagles territory, sputtered on key third downs, then failed to score. Derek Dreher blocked a 25-yard field goal try, and Fields’ 36-yard attempt sailed wide right to end Hardin-Simmons’ next possession.
Donoval made it 7-0 on a 48-yard run, busting a short-yardage play into the open field, and scored on runs of 1 and 4 yards in the third quarter as the Eagles took a 21-0 lead.
Game over? Hardly.
In what seemed like the blink of an eye-it was actually 5 minutes, 24 seconds of game time-the Cowboys tied the game.
Hardin-Simmons scored with 7 seconds left in the third quarter on a 5-yard run by Josh Stephens. On the third play of UW-L’s drive, Donoval broke through the line for a first down but lost the ball as he was hit and Aaron Clough pounced on it.
The Cowboys converted that into an 18-yard touchdown pass from Justin Feaster to ZaVious Robbins to make it 21-14. Three plays later, Tyler Keeney had a Moe pass bounce off his hands, and Michael Tracy picked it out of the air, setting up Hardin-Simmons’ tying score, a 7-yard touchdown from Feaster to Mychal Carrillo.
Dreher, a sophomore cornerback, said having to defend poor field position in the second half was not an excuse for the defense.
“We talk about having to be ready anytime, anywhere in a game,” Dreher said. “That’s our job, to get the stop, and we would have liked to do it a few more times.”
Feaster completed 20 of 31 yards for 219 yards and was sharp on Hardin-Simmons’ final scoring drive, leading the team 69 yards in 2 ½ minutes to set up Fields for the game winner.
“We’re trying to be one of the better teams in Division III, and we’ve got to beat people like this to do it,” Cowboys head coach Jimmie Keeling said.
