Nicholls Outlasts Northwestern State 31-27 in a Shootout
Zach Wilcke had 45.6 Promethium points, 479 yards of offense behind him and a touchdown pass in the final five minutes, and Northwestern State is still 0-6. Nicholls won 31-27 and moved to 3-3.
It began with a bang. Wilcke hit Amaaz Eugene for an 82-yard touchdown at 13:56 of the first quarter, and Northwestern State led 7-0 barely a minute in. Kingston Phan kicked a 26-yard field goal and Chase Richardson found Isaiah LeBlanc from 27 yards to put Nicholls up 10-7. Wilcke ran in from the 1 with 1:28 left in the half for a 14-10 lead. The lead changed hands five times in total, and it never stayed put for long.
Shane Lee scored from 2 yards to make it 17-14, Wilcke threw a 10-yard score to Jimmie Duncan to flip it back to 21-17, and Tamaj Hoffman answered with a 7-yard run, so Nicholls led 24-21 heading into the fourth. Greg Donaldson caught a 35-yard touchdown from Richardson at 12:48 and it was 31-21. Wilcke threw a 2-yard touchdown to Brendan Webb with 4:24 left, but the two-point run failed, and 31-27 was the final.
Northwestern State out-gained Nicholls 479 yards to 360 and threw for 356 of them. Nicholls ran for 202, 151 of it from Richardson alone (22 carries). The only turnover in the game was a Northwestern State interception. Northwestern State's 0-6 record is the kind that does not usually come with 479 yards of offense and 27 points.
For fantasy, Wilcke, Richardson (33.1) and Eugene (29.1) were the top three and each of them set a season high in the same game.