SUN BELT CONFERENCE : Receiver’s TD pass turns back ASU
Posted on Sunday, November 9, 2008
MIAMI — It was T. Y. Hilton’s feet that concerned Arkansas
. But it was Hilton’s arm that snuffed out the Red Wolves’ Sun Belt Conference title hopes on Saturday. Hilton, the nation’s leader in total yards, completed a 38-yard
ver pass to Jeremy Dickens for the go-ahead touchdown with 2: 04 left and Arkansas State’s last ditch drive ended on an interception in a 22-21 Florida International victory at FIU Stadium. “That hurts,” Arkansas State Coach Steve Roberts said of Hilton’s big play.
Arkansas State led 21-15 when Hilton, the receiver / kick returner averaging a national best 192. 0 all-purpose yards a game, returned a kickoff from his 11 to the Arkansas State 38. On the first play, Hilton, running a reverse, fumbled the ball but recovered and saw Dickens for the go-ahead pass and the Golden Panthers’ first touchdown of the night.
“We had an opportunity to win the game,” Roberts said. “Defensively, we did a good job keeping them out of the end zone. They’ve got some great players in all phases of the game. Special teams, they won that battle with T. Y. Hilton.”
Arkansas State drove to the Florida International 40 before Corey Leonard was intercepted.
The loss was the second in Sun Belt Conference play for Arkansas State (4-5, 2-2 ) after it blew a nine-point lead in the final 7: 39 at Louisiana-Lafayette on Oct. 18. This time, Arkansas State blew a nine-point lead with 6: 29 to play.
“We’ve got to put people away,” Roberts said. “We’ve got to find a way.”
Florida International improved to 4-5 and 3-2 while Arkansas State, entering its third and final bye week, fell into the two-loss category and likely won’t be able to overtake either Louisiana-Lafayette, still perfect in conference, or Troy, which has one loss.
“We’ll challenge this football team and find out who we are in two weeks,” Roberts said. “It’s not effort. The guys played their hearts out. Unfortunately, we didn’t make the plays at the end we needed to make.”
Trailing 7-6 to start the second half, Florida International drove for Dustin Rivest’s third field goal, this one from 43 yards, for the 9-7 lead with 12: 51 left in the third quarter.
A holding penalty forced Arkansas State to start its next possession at its 12, but the Red Wolves drove 88 yards and scored on Leonard’s 18-yard pass to Vernon Catlin with 8: 50 left in the third quarter.
Leonard had a 5-yard keeper for a first down on the drive, Jahbari McLennan got a first down on a 23-yard reverse and Leonard threw to Brandon Thompkins for a 23-yard completion to set up the touchdown pass.
The Golden Panthers responded with a penalty-aided drive ending with Rivest’s 35-yard field goal that cut it to 14-12 with 6: 12 left in the third. Florida International had made 2 of 4 field-goal attempts entering the night, but Rivest’s kick made him 4 of 5 for the game.
Rivest would later set the school field goals record with a 37-yarder that cut it to 21-15 with 11: 28 left in the game.
First, Arkansas State put together a 75-yard scoring drive that featured Leonard’s 16-yard first-down completion to David Johnson and Derek Lawson’s 12-yard touchdown run that made it 21-12 with 13: 31.
Arkansas State spent most of the first half in Florida International territory but didn’t produce any points until Leonard’s 1-yard run capped a 65-yard drive and made it 7-6 with 59 seconds left.
Florida International drove to the Arkansas State 16 in the closing seconds of the half but Rivest, who had field goals of 43 and 32 yards in the half, was wide right on a 33-yard attempt and Leonard was able to kneel and run out the clock.
The Red Wolves drove to the Golden Panthers 25 on the game’s opening possession, but Leonard was sacked to bring up fourth-and-13, then threw incomplete to Trevor Gillott on the next play. Arkansas State drove to the Florida International 34 later in the first quarter, but Leonard was again sacked, this time for a 4-yard loss on fourthand-8 as the Red Wolves turned it over on downs once more.
The Golden Panthers took a 3-0 lead on Rivest’s 43-yard field goal early in the second quarter. Arkansas State drove to the Florida International 37 thanks to a 23-yard completion from Leonard to Johnson, but Lawson lost 3 yards and Leonard was sacked for a 10-yard loss as the Red Wolves were forced to punt.
The Golden Panthers reached the Red Wolves 10 thanks to an 84-yard completion from Paul McCall to Hilton, but two running plays and an incompletion netted 0 yards, and McCall’s pass on a fake field goal was incomplete.
Arkansas State, taking over at its 10, couldn’t move the ball, and Brett Schrable punted from the goal line. That set up Florida International’s 40-yard scoring drive capped by Rivest’s second field goal that made it 6-0 with 4: 33 left in the half.
Arkansas State finally drove for a touchdown, marching from its 35 thanks to a 10-yard firstdown run by Reggie Arnold, a 10-yard first-down completion from Leonard to Jarriel Norman, a 10-yard first-down run by Leonard and Arnold’s 29-yard carry that set up Leonard’s scoring run from the 1.
In other Sun Belt games, Rusty Smith threw four touchdown passes as host Florida Atlantic (4-5, 2-2 ) won its third consecutive game with a 46-13 victory over North Texas (1-9, 0-5 ).... Levi Brown threw for 298 yards and two touchdowns to help host Troy (6-3 ) win 17-7 over Western Kentucky (2-8 ).... Joe Craddock passed for 216 yards and a touchdown to lead host Middle Tennessee (3-6, 2-3 ) to a 24-21 victory over Louisiana-Monroe (2-7, 1-4 ).... Trevor Vittatoe threw five touchdown passes to lead Texas-El Paso (4-5 ) to a 37-24 victory against host Louisiana-Lafayette (5-4 ).
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