Tarleton State Beats McNeese 27-24 on Last-second Kick
Alejandro De La Poza kicked a 24-yard field goal as the clock hit 0:00, and Tarleton State beat McNeese 27-24. A game that had been tied four times needed the last possible second to pick a winner.
McNeese scored first, Omiri Wiggins running in from 13 yards. Tarleton State answered with a Kaden Anderson 8-yard run and a Tylan Hines 13-yarder to lead 14-7 in the second quarter. The third quarter was the wild one. Curtis Deville caught a 7-yard touchdown from Devin Lippold to tie it, Hines ripped off a 46-yard run to go back ahead 21-14, and Deville and Lippold connected again from 47 yards to make it 21-21 only 1:37 later. Deaglan Camron's 37-yard field goal with 16 seconds left in the quarter put McNeese up 24-21, and that is where the score stood entering the fourth.
It stayed there until De La Poza kicked a 24-yarder with 12:10 to go to tie it at 24. Then nobody scored for a long time, until the same kicker did the same thing from the same distance at 0:00. Two field goals of 24 yards, and a 27-24 win. (Tarleton State was also down 7-0 early, so it climbed out of a hole as well.)
The yards were nearly even, 509 for Tarleton State against 495 for McNeese. Neither team threw an interception or lost a fumble. Tarleton State ran only 22 times, but made 146 yards of it, and threw for 363. McNeese ran 31 times for 209 and scored 21 of its 24 points on touchdowns. Strip out the kicks and it is a 21-21 game, which is about right.
Tarleton State is 2-0. McNeese is 0-2 and has now lost two games that could have gone either way. For fantasy, Lippold was the top scorer at 29.9 points, and he did it in a loss.