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| Louisiana College coach
Dennis Dunn ran practically all the way up to quarterback Easton
Melancon with under 10 seconds left and was flagged, ending the
game and giving Texas Lutheran the win. Video capture: Watch full archive (scroll to 4-hour mark) |
The Bulldogs are 3-0 to start a season for the second straight year. LC dropped to 1-2 overall with the non-conference loss.
Trailing by six with 3:28 to play in the game, LC drove down to the TLU 4 with less than 10 seconds to play.
Out of timeouts and hurrying to the line for a fourth-down snap, LC head coach Dennis Dunn was flagged for sideline interference. Dunn marched at least 10 yards onto the field to bark instructions to his team on the final play in regulation.
The LC penalty resulted in a 10-second run-off of the game clock and set off a jubilant on-field celebration by the Bulldogs.
"There was a little confusion on the sideline," Wildcats
quarterback Easton Melancon said. "Me and coach Dunn weren't on the
same page. He thought that I was going to spike it.
"Right when we got the ball back, I had the image in my mind
that we were going to win the game. It sucks."
"We were out of timeouts… He was running up to spike
it, and it was fourth down," Dunn said. "We could not spike it at
that point. I was just trying to get his attention to not spike it.
He was gonna spike it and game over. It was an end of the game
situation where you practice those things, but you never think
they're going to come back to bite you."
"Once he got tackled, we realized we needed to hurry up and
get on the ball," senior receiver Kyle Galyon said. "At first,
Easton was gonna spike it to stop the clock, but he realized late
that it was fourth down, so he tried to call a play. And we just
didn't have good enough communication on the sideline, and it ended
up not working out for us. "
"It was supposed to be a dead ball issue – that's what
we call it," junior receiver Ladarius Gardner said. "Easton was
going to throw a streak, but Coach Dunn ran on the field…
telling him if we dead the ball, it's a loss of down. and it was
fourth down. We just had a misunderstanding about it."
That misunderstanding cost the Wildcats the chance to avenge
last year's bitter loss to TLU and dropped the Wildcats to
1-2.
"I had no idea was the call was," said Michael Wall, TLU's sophomore weak safety. "I was freaking out. I was just going to play my coverage. The coach just comes running onto the field, clearly on the field. I'm like, 'That's illegal or something.' I don't know we all were kind of freaking out. I'm just glad it turned out the way it did."
"I just started running around in circles, hitting everybody. It's just an awesome feeling. Just all of a sudden, (the officials) said it was over."
Wall (El Campo/El Campo) had a key fourth-down stop on an LC possession, recovered two LC fumbles, registered five tackles and broke up a pass.
Barrolle, fresh off a school-record 46 carries with 218 rushing yards in the win last week against Hardin-Simmons, picked up where left off against the Cowboys. The 5-foot-4, 150-pound sophomore rushed 30 times for 179 yards and a school-record tying four touchdowns.
"Marquis is unbelievable," said Danny Padron, TLU's fifth-year head coach. "He is just unbelievable. God really gave him lots of talent, and it's just exciting."
TLU rushed for 290 yards on 57 total carries and out-gained LC by 207 on the ground. The Bulldogs held the ball for 37:27, compared to LC's 22:33.
"We got a different ball club," said Padron, referring to the 2012 TLU loss at Wildcat Field that saw LC force overtime with a last-second touchdown. "Our defense just played lights out, and offense did a great job again."
"It was a complete team victory again. Special teams held in there. That's just a big play team they have. It's very difficult to contain and hold them, and our guys did a good job."