MONROE, La. – The Arkansas State Red Wolves special teams units blocked two kicks, while senior quarterback Adam Kennedy posted 337 yards total offense and running back Michael Gordon recorded a career-best four touchdowns to help lead the Red Wolves past Louisiana-Monroe 42-14 in a Sun Belt Conference matchup Saturday at Malone Stadium.
With the victory, A-State (5-4, 3-1) moved into sole possession of second place in the SBC league standings.
Kennedy finished the night with a season-high in rushing yards (102) and touchdown rushes (2). He also added 235 yards passing with a touchdown. Both of Kennedy’s rushing touchdowns came after the result of a block by the A-State special teams unit.
The first block came with 3:58 to go in the third quarter when Ryan Carrethers got his hands on a 39-yard field goal attempt by Justin Manton. Artez Brown returned it to the ASU 44 and the offense did not waste the opportunity.
Kennedy led the Red Wolves on a five-play, 56-yard drive the culminated with an eight-yard touchdown run from Kennedy to push the lead to 28-14 with 1:40 to go in the third quarter.
Arkansas State added a punt block in the fourth quarter when LaAngelo Albright blocked and recovered Manton’s punt from inside the ULM 10-yard line. Kennedy again made the Warhawks pay by punching it in two plays later from four yards out to extend the lead to 35-14 with 9:26 to play in the game.
The final dagger came with 4:40 to play in the fourth quarter when Michael Gordon scored his third rushing touchdown of the night to put A-State up 42-14. The score was set up by an Artez Browninterception with 9:13 to go and the Red Wolves went on a 10-play, 4:33 drive that was capped with Gordon’s touchdown.
Senior kicker Brian Davis added the extra-point and in the process tied the Sun Belt Conference record for most points by kicking with 295.
For the second straight week the Red Wolves took advantage of a Sterling Young third quarter interception. The junior safety intercepted Browning and returned it to the ULM 36 yard line to setup the go-ahead score by Michael Gordon.
J.D. McKissic set up the score for Gordon by taking a reverse rush 15 yards down to the ULM 1 yard line and Gordon scored on the next play to give A-State a 21-14 edge with 8:00 to go in the third quarter.
Gordon finished the night with 72 yards rushing and three rushing touchdowns while also hauling in two passes for 59 yards and a score.
A-State started its scoring on the night by constructing a 91-yard scoring drive near the end of the first quarter that was highlighted by a 51-yard touchdown pass to Gordon and put the Red Wolves up 7-0 with 49 seconds to go in the quarter. It was Gordon’s first touchdown reception of his career and Kennedy’s first touchdown pass since Oct. 12 against Idaho.
The lead would not last as the Warhawks needed just two plays to answer the score when Kolten Browning connected with Rashon Ceaser on the final play of the first quarter to tie the score at 7-7.
The scoring continued on the following possession when McKissic returned the kickoff 50 yards to give the Red Wolves’ offense a short field. A-State reached deep into its playbook of the first play, executing a reverse double-pass from Kennedy to Jones for a 49-yard gain to put the ball on the ULM 1 yard line. Gordon punched it on the next play and the Red Wolves took a 14-7 lead with over 14 minutes remaining in the first half.
The pass to Jones began with Fredi Knighten lining up in the quarterback position and handing the ball off to McKissic who then lateraled the ball to Kennedy who then passed it to Jones for the big gain.
ULM tied the game before halftime thanks to a 10-play, 90-yard drive that was capped by a 10-yard touchdown pass by Browning to Ceaser with eight seconds remaining in the first half.
A-State finished the night with 494 yards of total offense, 259 of which came via the ground game. McKissic led the Red Wolves with seven catches for 75 yards while Qushaun Lee led the squad with seven tackles.
Arkansas State will return to the field Saturday, Nov. 16 for a home matchup with SBC newcomer Texas State. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m.
Post-Game comments from the coaches:
ULM Head Coach Todd Berry
Opening Statement:
“I’m disappointed; I hate it for our seniors. I appreciate the people that showed up because I know that other things that were going on, my hat’s off to them. Wish we could have played better for that group that did show up. The players right now are disappointed and hurt; I think the bottom line was that we got dominated on the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and I think that was evident throughout the course of the game. Our kicking game really hurt us and the turnovers hurt us and that’s kind of what got everything rolling there in the second half. We couldn’t control the line of scrimmage at all on either side of the ball, and then obviously the kicking game and turnovers let us down.”
On players not looking like themselves tonight:
“Well, I don’t know I haven’t seen the tape. I know this, the group is a bunch of pleasers. They really wanted to play well tonight and sometimes whenever you push the envelope too much, when you press, you don’t play well. I don’t know if that’s accurate but obviously it’s happened with this group before in some games where all of a sudden it felt like everyone was trying so hard to play well that, in the process, we didn’t play as well as we needed to. They’re upset right now. They wanted to show their appreciation to the crowd that showed up here tonight and the seniors certainly wanted to play well. They’re pleasers, you know, so now we have to bounce back.”
On how much having older receivers out affected the game:
“I don’t know that it impacted us that much just because of the nature, there’s no question that we miss some guys. Even in the fact that we had some guys that had to play way too many snaps. In the process of playing too many snaps, you’re not quite as crisp, you’re not where you need to be at the exact appropriate time. The bottom line is that we didn’t own the line of scrimmage; that was probably the biggest factor tonight, on either side of the ball. We got pushed around.”
On if he thinks they got beat by the better team:
“We did. Tonight, a better team tonight. I thought going in that this was a very even game as everybody else in the conference did. There’s not any difference between anybody in this conference. It’s who shows up that night. They showed up, we didn’t show up as well as we needed to. We were not as physical as we needed to be and that was evident with yards per carry from a run standpoint.”
On how the team will react:
“We’ll respond. It’s a hurt group in there but they got pride. There’s very little margin of error for us now. There’s none and that’s what I just told them, I mean there’s no margin.”
Arkansas State Head Coach Brian Harsin
On Oku/Tryon Suspensions:
“It was a violation of team rules. Those guys will be back in the meeting on Sunday. They’ll be ready to play next week. It was something that happened prior to the game. I’m really proud of our team and the way they stepped up. I’m proud of the guys that had to be in the positions to replace the two guys that had been playing for us all year long. They really rallied around each other tonight, so I felt like that was a huge part of our growth as a football team tonight. Those two guys will be back on Sunday and they’ll be ready to play.”
On Halftime Discussion:
“We really didn’t change anything that we had talked about prior to the game. We talked about fighting in the game. We talked about offense and running the ball physically. We talked about defense playing the entire play every play because the quarterback is such a great scrambler. We talked about how on special teams (we needed to) simply out-hustle them. Period. It had nothing to do with scheme. It was a very simple plan that did not change coming into the second half. We just made some corrections as far as the concept that they beat us on. I thought the defense did a good job of that, but overall the whole concept was fight the whole entire time and I thought the guys did that.”
On Special Teams:
“It’s huge. If you get two blocks on special teams, you’re going to win the game. If you get five turnovers in a game, you’re going to win the game. That’s just how it is, bottom line. I didn’t see Albright’s block, I happened to be turned around on it, but I saw the end result of it. He was excited about it. I’ll have to go back and look at it on tape, but that’s huge. We talk about it every week. You don’t know who it’s going to be, you just know we have an opportunity and when it comes, everyone has to be full speed and Albright just happened to be the guy.”
Loading ...
