Nicholls Holds on to Beat UT Rio Grande Valley 31-28
UT Rio Grande Valley outgained Nicholls 327 yards to 326. It lost 31-28 anyway. The yardage said toss-up, and the three turnovers (two interceptions and a lost fumble) said otherwise.
Nicholls got there on the arm of Ean Rodrigue. He threw touchdowns to Jackson Dufrene from 18, 20 and 3 yards, and Dufrene had three of the home team's first four scores. UT Rio Grande Valley fought back from 14-0 down, Kyran Lee catching a 29-yarder and TJ Dement running in from a yard out to tie it at 14 with 4:25 left in the second quarter. Kingston Phan kicked a 32-yard field goal at 3:23 and Nicholls never trailed. It was 24-14 after Dufrene's third touchdown at 6:31 of the third.
Rodrigue threw his fourth touchdown on the last play of the third quarter, 10 yards to S. Lee, and Nicholls led 31-14 going into the fourth. That is where the visitors came back to life. Jaydon Smith caught a 36-yard touchdown from Aidan Jakobsohn at 8:59, and Christian Sabsook caught a 7-yarder with 57 seconds left. It stopped at 31-28, three short, with all the points from the fourth quarter on one side.
Nicholls ran 37 times for 91 yards and threw for 235. UT Rio Grande Valley ran 33 times for 63 and threw for 264, and the turnover count was 3 to 2 against them (Nicholls threw one interception and lost one fumble). It was close enough that a single stop would have changed it.
Nicholls is 2-0. UT Rio Grande Valley is 0-1. For fantasy, Rodrigue (36.2) and Dufrene (32.9) were the top two scorers, and Lee of the visitors added 26.5 in the loss.