Nicholls State and Texas State faced off in the fourteenth annual Battle for the Paddle game Saturday night, and the Colonels took home the hardware with a 47-45 quadruple overtime win.
Five of the 13 previous match-ups had been decided by one touchdown or less, so head coach Brad Wright knew the game would probably be pretty close, no matter how bad Nicholls had been playing as of late. The twenty-second ranked Texas State Bobcats were trying to bounce back from the drumming they took last weekend against Southeastern Louisiana, however the Colonels were also coming off of a loss, so both teams were desperately trying to avoid an 0-2 conference start.
In the first quarter, the Bobcat's first turnover came with a little over eleven minutes on the clock, as DeMarcus Griggs muffed the first punt of the game and allowed Nicholls to take over with an extremely short field with which to work. After the colonels scored, the ensuing kickoff would have gone out of bounds, but Phillip Benning made a tightrope grab on the sideline and started the offense inside the 10-yard line. The first quarter ended with the 'Cats only converting two first downs on five possessions and -1 rushing yards on nine carries.
The second quarter started with a 66-yard bomb to Griggs, but stopped there. The Bobcats settled for a field goal, but Justin Garelick missed it, and after an interception by the defense, Griggs got another big play -- a 42-yard touchdown grab. By now I'd say he has made up for the muffed punt, but he wasn't done at all on this career night. Later that quarter, the Colonels barely missed a 53-yard field goal wide right, but so did the Bobcats at end the half. Penalties were the halftime story and Texas State had been penalized four times for 111 yards compared to Nicholls' 30 yards on three penalties. The bobcats weren't executing, and that puts it lightly.
The second half started off with quarterback Tyler Arndt getting his offense in rhythm and marching them down the field only to have the special teams make another mistake. The field goal attempt was blocked by Nicholls, then picked up by Bobby Felder and taken to the house. After another good drive by the offense, they were looking at a fourth and two in the red zone. Coach Wright wisely called a play action, which went to Gentry, and set up a fade route to Darren Dillard the very next play that went for six yards.
Going into the fourth quarter, the 'Cats tallied up a total of three missed field goals, a blocked field goal and a muffed punt. Early in the fourth, the Colonels had a tough time getting anything going as they were pinned back close to the end zone. So they punted it away to Griggs which he returned 36 yards back to the red zone. On the very next play, Arndt hit Griggs on a 17-yard touchdown pass in the left corner of the end zone, which put Texas State up 21-14. After a couple of unsuccessful drives by both teams, Nicholls marched down the field late in the fourth and set up a fourth & goal at the 4-yard line with 18 seconds left in the game. They converted on a pass to Kenyard Blair, which we would see again in the overtime that now stood ahead.
To make a long story short, both teams went tit-for-tat in the overtime periods. Nicholls scored first, then Darren Dillard caught a TD pass (both teams converted the extra points). The next overtime featured two field goal kicks, one for each squad. Then the Third overtime saw a touchdown, with the mandatory two-point conversion rule in effect for Nicholls first, then a TD run for Dexter Imade and a two point conversion strike to Darren Dillard. In the fourth OT, Dexter Imade ran in a 1-yd touchdown but Tyler Arndt's two-point pass attempt to Griggs was broken up. After a touchdown by Nicholls, QB LaQuint Caston ran the exact same bootleg pass that tied the game at the end of regulation, this time to (the appropriately named) Chucky Nichols and the game was over, 47-45. A heart-breaking loss for Bobcat Nation only to see Nicholls storm the field and run to the Bobcat sideline to grab the two-sided paddle.
DeMarcus Griggs and Tyler Arndt both finished with career highs in their respective stat lines: Griggs had 205 receiving yards on eleven receptions and two touchdowns, and Arndt had 348 yards on 25/38 passing and four touchdowns. In the end, it wasn't enough, so the bobcats will have to get back to basics for homecoming next week against Northwestern State at 3:00 p.m. KTSW will have pregame coverage starting at 1:00 p.m. on 89.9 FM and www.ktsw.net.
Robert Fisher, KTSW Sports
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