Football falls in final seconds at Louisiana College

PINEVILLE, La. – The Huntingdon football team rallied from an early 17-point deficit but came up short to Louisiana College in the final seconds on Saturday.

The Wildcats scored with eight seconds to play to pull out a 49-42 win. It was the third straight game between the teams to be decided by seven points or less.

Huntingdon won 62-56 in overtime in 2010 and marched 99 yards to win 34-27 in the final minutes last season.

"Sometimes when we play them, it seems like the team that has the ball last is going to win," Huntingdon head coach Mike Turk said. "In 2010 we won an overtime shootout with them and then last year at our place we scored late to win. These are two very competitive teams that are going to compete until the game is over. I have a lot of respect for coach Dennis Dunn and his program."

The two teams combined to score 60 points in the second half. For the game, both offenses combined for 980 yards. Huntingdon (0-1) finished with 460 yards of offense and Louisiana College (1-0) had 520 yards.

"With the ebb and flow of the game, each team was moving the ball and scoring. It just happened that when we got the ball back for the final time, we didn't have enough time left to do anything," Turk said. "We did some good things on offense, but we had a couple of dismal fourth-quarter possessions. We shot ourselves in the foot on those drives and that will come back to bite you in a close game.

"We played really hard and I'm proud of our effort. But we made a lot of mistakes today. We made some critical mistakes in the kicking game that hurt us and we have to address that. We have to move forward, eliminate our mistakes, build on the positives and get ready for another good team next week."

The Hawks host Birmingham-Southern at Samford Stadium at 6 p.m. on Sept. 13.

Huntingdon fell behind quickly on Saturday. Louisiana College scored with a 63-yard touchdown pass on the third play from scrimmage. Less than two minutes into the second quarter, the Hawks trailed 17-0.

Huntingdon responded with two touchdowns before halftime as quarterback Taylor Hughes hit Darius Dawsey for a 2-yard touchdown and connected with Brantley Carr for a 17-yard touchdown. Hughes' second touchdown pass made it 17-14 at the half.

In the third quarter, sophomore running back John Iwaniec scored twice, on a 6-yard run and a 1-yard run, and Willie Coleman hauled in a 41-yard touchdown pass from Luke Bailey. But each time, Louisiana College had an answer.

Huntingdon led 35-28 after three quarters, but the Wildcats blocked a Huntingdon punt and recovered it in the end zone to tie the game early in the final quarter. The back-and-forth continued as Hughes scored on a two-yard run with 11:29 to play and Louisiana College answered less than two minutes later.

Tied 42-42 with less than two minutes to play, the Hawks' defense made a big stop on third down. The Phillip Bagley sack forced a punt, setting the Hawks up on their own 20-yard line with 1:38 to play.

But four plays later, Huntingdon was forced to punt with 52 seconds left. After a 6-yard punt, the Wildcats took over at the Huntingdon 31 and scored in three plays.

Hughes finished with 275 yards and two touchdowns on an 18-for-27 day. Dawsey had seven catches for 102 yards and a score and Coleman had three catches for 73 yards and a score. Iwaniec led the ground game with 55 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries.

Defensively, safety Anthony White recorded 10 tackles. Defensive lineman Heath McCray had eight tackles and a sack and linebacker Jake Green had eight tackles. Cornerbacks Jeremy Murphy and Brendon Brown each had one interception.