By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Associate Athletic Director for External Relations; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
NATCHITOCHES – A fast start had the Northwestern State football team feeling fine in its 2024 home opener Saturday night in Turpin Stadium.
Unfortunately for the Demons, the final play of their matchup with Prairie View A&M delivered the opposite emotion.
Northwestern quarterback JT Fayard was ruled to have been stopped short of the goal line on a sneak on an untimed down, allowing the visiting Panthers to hold on for a 37-31 victory in front of a crowd of 9,132.
“I’m incredibly proud to be the head coach at Northwestern State,” first-year head coach Blaine McCorkle said. “I took this job nine and a half months ago for nights like this. We didn’t win, and that hurts, but we didn’t give ourselves the chance to win. We didn’t earn the right to win the game tonight. We had way too many mistakes, way too many penalties that didn’t give us the right to win the game.
“There were many opportunities that we blew to do just that. At the same time, knowing this football team and where they’ve come from and who they are – and knowing the perception of this football team, which is very real to many people – giving ourselves a chance to win the game on the last play, I couldn’t be prouder of that. These guys know how to fight and stay together. We’re not winning games, but we’re killing assumptions and stereotypes about what Northwestern State football is.”
What the Demons (0-2) were at times Saturday night were explosive and opportunistic.
A week after scoring on the second play from scrimmage at Tulsa, Northwestern one-upped itself on a first-play, 71-yard touchdown pass from JT Fayard to Myles Kitt-Denton, taking a 7-0 lead 14 seconds into the game. It was
That started a salvo of big plays from both sides as the Panthers (1-1) squared things at 7 on a 42-yard touchdown pass from Cameron Peters to Arthur Thomas IV at the 9:12 mark of the first quarter.
On Prairie View’s next possession, Demon cornerback Emanuel Brown snared his first career interception and weaved his way up the left sideline for a 37-yard touchdown to regain the lead for Northwestern.
The Panthers then mixed a patient approach with sprinkles of downfield catches from Shemar Savage (6 catches, 133 yards and a touchdown) to build a 20-14 halftime lead.
Once again, the Demons answered with a chunk play – a 55-yard Kennieth Lacy touchdown rush – to regain the lead.
For all their big plays, however, the Demons struggled to sustain drives, converting just two of 13 third downs. The Panthers, meanwhile, were 10-for-20 on third downs and won the time of possession battle by nearly 15 minutes, running 85 plays to Northwestern’s 59.
Prairie View outrushed the Demons, 188-105, taking advantage of their offensive line’s size.
“That’s a lot of plays no doubt, but I didn’t see a lot of guys cramping up,” McCorkle said. “I didn’t see a lot of guys going down. I give a lot of credit to our strength coach Jason Smelser for having those guys ready to go. When you play around 90 plays on September 7 in Louisiana, that’s a lot of football.”
Following Lacy’s touchdown run, the Panthers scored 10 straight before the opportunistic Demons struck again.
Junior linebacker Cadillac Rhone gave Northwestern its second pick six of the game, intercepting Peters and returning it 16 yards for a score to slice the lead to two.
“I’ve seen my teammates making plays, and I wanted to make a play,” said Rhone, who scored his first touchdown in Turpin Stadium as a collegian after doing so in Many High School’s state title game victory here in 2020. “We all want to make plays on defense. We want to help the offense the best way we can. Special teams, also. Just try to put points on the board. Eman had his pick six, so I wanted to get one too.”
Rhone’s interception breathed life into the Demons, who survived a fourth-quarter interception of their own to summon a nearly perfect ending to McCorkle’s home debut.
Taking over at its 1-yard line, Northwestern marched to the Prairie View 31-yard line with 1 second left. Fayard hit Twon Hines near the front corner of the goal line as time expired. A personal foul penalty on the Panthers gave the Demons another chance.
After a Panther timeout scuttled a tackle for loss, Fayard’s forward progress was deemed to be stopped short of the goal line.
“We felt like it was late in the game and their defensive line may have been a little tired and we could get a push,” McCorkle said. “When it’s that close, just poke it in. I’m not questioning the call. I feel like it was the right call. It’s safe. I have to trust the review, and there’s nothing you can do about it now.”
The Demons return to action in five days when they travel to Mobile, Alabama, for the first matchup with South Alabama in program history. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m.