Sxucougars.com Cougar players celebrate a score over Madonna University
On Saturday, the Cougars won an Overtime thriller over Saint Francis University (IL) 28-21. This win not only bumps them up the NAIA rankings, but it also gives the Cougars a better seeding for the playoffs.
Going into this game, both teams knew it would be a dogfight. Both teams were playing playoff football because both teams needed this win.
If the Cougars lost this game, their playoff chances would have been slim to none. If the Saints won, that would have been their first win against the Cougars since 2008, and they would have moved on to 5-0.
On top of that, it was their homecoming night, so it would have been nice to be undefeated while dancing in a ballroom.
It was a hot eight-degree game. Both teams were having to pull players out and put guys in due to frequent cramping.
The game started off with the Cougars getting the ball first and going three and out. After the Cougars punted the ball to the Saints, they ran the ball inside the five yard line for a quick score to go up 7-0.
The Cougars defense had a hard time trying to stop the Saints ground game. They would constantly get positive yards every time they would give the ball to their quarterback.
Even though the end of the first quarter was a stalemate between both teams, the Cougars would respond early in the second quarter with an explosive play of their own.
Senior Quarterback Stuart Ross heaved a pass up to Senior Wide Receiver Kyle Quinn, and Quinn caught the ball over a defender for a 27-yard touchdown pass to make the game 7-7.
Before half, the Saints would get another touchdown run to take the lead 14-7 into halftime, orso we thought. With 10 seconds left in the half, Ross found Grad Student Justin Pringle wide open in the back of the endzone for a 17 yard passing touchdown to tie the game 14-14.
After halftime, both teams seemed to have a fair chance of winning this game. Both teams were fighting tooth and nail at this point. Anyone watching this game would’ve thought that it was going to come down to who wanted it more.
Third quarter saw no scores for a good part of the game until the Saints scored in a two play drive after late in that quarter. The Cougars defense let up a 73 yard passing touchdown to make the game 21-14 Saints lead.
The fourth quarter saw only one score early in that quarter from Senior Running Back Amari Vernerable running it into the touchdown from 1 yard out to tie the game 21-21. The rest of the fourth were many punts until the Cougars defense forced a fourth down stop with a minute left on the clock.
Unfortunately, the Cougars couldn’t put anything together, so they took the game into overtime.
The Cougars got the ball first and got a quick score after Ross threw up a pass to the back of the endzone to Senior Wide Receiver Brandt Hixson 25 yards out to pull ahead 28-21.
The Saints tried to replicate what the Cougars did and took an end zone shot on the first play but got intercepted by Junior Defensive Back Antonio Orozco to end the game for the Saints.
This was a momentous win for the Cougars and a crushing loss for the Saints.
The Cougar offense looked great this game. One thing that the Cougars needed to do was limit the turnovers, which they did fumble, but it was picked up by a lineman. Besides that, they had no turnovers and capitalized when needed.
The defense looked pretty good as well. They were going against an impressive rushing offense which is never an easy task, especially the Saints. The quarterback broke an all time record for rushing touchdowns in a season this game.
Besides the inability to stop the run, they showed up when needed. When the Cougars needed stops, they got them, and that was ultimately the deciding factor of this game.
The Cougars are back at Deaton Field this Saturday, Oct. 7 at 1 p.m. against Judson University for Saint Xavier’s Homecoming game.