By Kane McGuire, Louisiana Tech Associate Director Strategic Communications; featured photo by Josh McDaniel
RUSTON — Louisiana Tech overcame a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter, but the Bulldogs ended up falling to Tulsa in overtime by a final score of 23-20 on Saturday night inside Joe Aillet Stadium.
LA Tech (1-2) used three different quarterbacks throughout the game. And it was a pair of redshirt freshmen – Blake Baker and Evan Bullock – each led touchdown drives in the fourth quarter.
The QB changes was to try to find a spark offensively. Down 17-7 heading into the final stanza, the offense had only 155 total yards and was just 1-of-9 on third down.
The first spark was provided by Baker who after getting sacked for a loss of eight yards on the first play of the fourth, connected on three straight passes – 14 yards to Eli Finley, 53 more yards to Finley, and 19 yards to Solo Lewis.
The trio of completions put LA Tech on the 1-yard line. It took three quarterback sneaks, but the third one crossed the goal line to make it a 17-13 deficit (extra-point attempt was unsuccessful).
The Bulldog defense than forced a 3-and-out by Tulsa (2-2) for the seventh time tonight. On the ensuing drive, Baker got injured after trying to scramble to pick up extra yards.
Insert Bullock who would get the ball with 4:55 left to go. After a 30-yard punt return by Lewis gave the ‘Dogs good field position at the Tulsa 48-yard line, Bullock would ultimately find Finley open over the middle for a 24-yard touchdown to put LA Tech up, 20-17.
The Golden Hurricane would convert three first downs to get in field goal range for Seth Morgan who drilled a 45-yarder to tie things up at 20-20 and force overtime.
Tulsa won the coin toss and elected to start on defense in OT. On LA Tech’s second play, Bullock was sacked from his blind side and fumbled which was recovered by the Golden Hurricane and nearly returned for a touchdown. Four plays later, Morgan gave the visitors the win with a 34-yard made field goal.
The game was dominated by both defenses. Tulsa struck first on a 5-play, 40-yard drive midway through the first quarter. It took a fortunate bounce on a punt return for LA Tech to score its first points as Cedric Woodscorralled the ball after it hit a Bulldog. He then raced 49 yards up the right sideline to give the home team the ball at the Tulsa 25-yard line. Jimmy Holiday found the end zone on a 1-yard rush on fourth down to tie things up at 7-7.
The only other points of the first half came off the foot of Tulsa’s Morgan who hit a 32-yarder to give the Golden Hurricane a 10-7 edge at halftime.
Jack Turner, Baker, and Bullock combined to go 17-of-30 for 197 yards. Finley secured three catches for a career-high 91 receiving yards. Defensively, Zach Zimos and Blake Thompson combined for 25 tackles and three tackles-for-loss (team had nine total).
QUOTABLES
Head coach Sonny Cumbie
Opening statement…
“Our crowd was great. The atmosphere was amazing. Our student section was phenomenal, and I think there was an advantage from that standpoint. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t capitalize on it as a team. We didn’t make enough plays and on offense, we did not play well. We did not improve this week on special teams and defense we flew around and played a physical style of football. Offensively, we have to find ways to move the football and make our efficiency better. It was a great crowd, and I’m disappointed that we couldn’t get a win and didn’t finish at the end. We still have a lot of football left to play with conference ahead of us. We start next week on the road at FIU and will turn the page on Monday after we watch this and learn from it. There will be a lot of games like this, there are a lot of good teams in our league. The little things are going to determine games in CUSA. I am just disappointed for our players and the great crowd we had tonight, and there is a lot of hurt in the locker room because this team is heavily invested in this place and one another we plan to keep it that way.
On reoccurring themes and how to turn it around…
“On offense, you don’t have 11 guys that are executing together or all at once. That is the thing about offensive football, we all have to be on the same page. We have not started the game fast on offense at all with efficiency and there are various reasons for that and those are things we are aware of. In terms of putting a game plan together, and allowing our guys to start football games fast that’s the biggest thing from an offense standpoint.”
Linebacker Zach Zimos
On what changed after getting down by 10 points…
“I don’t know, I just think it’s kind of a desperation quarter, being down. We needed to get stops and points on the board at the end of the day. We needed to get this home win. Unfortunately, the ball just didn’t go our way. I was asking the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to give us an opportunity. We got that, and unfortunately it did not go our way.”
On the defensive success tonight…
“Yeah, you know, I think we played a good game, but obviously we didn’t do it enough. I think they had less than 100 yards rushing. I don’t know how many passing yards they had. Coming in we knew they were going to up-tempo with different formations, we were going to see different things. At the end of the day, we didn’t get enough stops for us to win the ball game.”
Tight End Eli Finley
On what changed after getting down by 10 points…
“I mean, defense helped us out the whole game. We knew we had the fourth quarter, but we had to flip the script and do something for them.”
On the turnovers this season…
“We just got to keep our head down and keep playing. We practice every week, keeping the ball, holding the ball. So, it’s just those little moments in the game that we got to go mistake-free. We just got to do our job, and everyone does their job. Other players do their job on the team, and we’ve got a ball game. You can see we can make explosive plays. We just got to put that together for four quarters.”
NOTABLES
- LA Tech fell to 4-11 all-time in overtime games. It was the Bulldogs first OT game since Oct. 28, 2022.
- Eli Finley matched his season high with three receptions for a career-high 91 yards. He also recorded his first career touchdown reception.
- Omiri Wiggins accounted for 53 all-purpose yards (came into the game with 19 yards total through the first two games).
- After just one rushing attempt through the first two games, Fred Robertson had seven carries for 39 rushing yards.
- Jimmy Holiday registered his second rushing touchdown of the season.
- Zach Zimos tallied a game-high 13 tackles (one shy of tying his career high).
- Blake Thompson posted a career-high 12 tackles.
UP NEXT
LA Tech will open up Conference USA play on Saturday, Sept. 28 at FIU. Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. CT and will be broadcast on ESPN+.
