Houston Christian Holds Off a Late SE Louisiana Charge
Take away the last nine minutes and Houston Christian won this one by 20. Leave them in and it is a 34-28 squeaker, because SE Louisiana scored twice in the fourth quarter.
The hole was dug early. SE Louisiana led 7-0 after Calvin Smith Jr. ran 10 yards for a score with 0:09 left in the first quarter. Houston Christian then scored 24 straight: a field goal, a 4-yard run from Champ Dozier, and a 12-yard throw from Cutter Stewart to Keith Wheeler with two seconds left in the half for a 17-7 lead. Jaylen Middleton made it 24-7 in the third. Kyle Lowe answered with a 55-yard run, and Jamaal Hall II took a Stewart pass 66 yards at 1:55 to make it 31-14. A fourth-quarter field goal pushed it to 34-14.
Then Lowe threw to Lawson Dixon for 2 yards (8:35) and 18 yards (3:29), and it was 34-28. That is where it ended. SE Louisiana had more total yards, 399 to 362, and 249 of them on the ground, but it also lost two fumbles and threw an interception. Houston Christian gave it away once, on an interception. Three turnovers against one is the kind of math that makes up for a lot of yards.
Houston Christian starts 1-0 and SE Louisiana 0-1. On the fantasy side, Lowe was the top scorer on the field despite the loss, and Stewart was close behind. Dixon got there on four catches and two touchdowns, both in the last eight and a half minutes. Garbage time counts the same as the first quarter. I will take the points.