Saturday, September 26, 2009

Author: Rodney Bush

From: San Marcos, TX

San Marcos, TX-Special Teams was the bright spot for the Texas Southern Tigers when they faced Texas State University on Saturday in San Marcos. The squad pulled off a play that fans will be talking about for some time.

TSU’s Robert Hersh put six points on the board with field goals of 25 and 21 yards. The Tigers trailed 3-24 with seconds left in the second quarter. Texas State was set to kick a field goal when it was blocked by TSU’s John Cole (#56).   Harry Brown (#18) picked up the ball and took it 68 yards before pitching it to Dejuan Fulghum (#44). He followed with a lateral to Michael Shelton (#91) who pitched to Washington who then took the ball 24 yards for the score. The Tigers missed the two point pass conversion. The half ended with TSU trailing 12-24.

Texas Southern’s offense continued to move the ball in the second half, but their opportunities to score were marred by penalties and turnovers.

"I thought the touchdown before the half would give us the spark we needed going into the second half. And it seemed to during our first drive in the third quarter," said head coach Johnnie Cole. "We moved the ball well, but we lost it on a fumble. That pretty much was how the game went for us… we’ll get some momentum then a turnover or penalty would kill it for us."

Texas State turned TSU’s fumble into seven points which gave them a 31-12 lead.

Texas Southern got another shot when Curtis Thomas (#9) picked off a Bobcat pass. TSU marched 59 yards to Texas State’s one yard line but couldn’t punch it in. They turned the ball over on downs.

Texas State scored three times in the fourth quarter for a 52-12 lead.   The Tigers showed some fight at the end of the game by marching 80 yards in nine plays. They capped the drive with a nine yard touchdown run by Nelson. That also ended the game with TSU falling 18-52.

Nelson completed 31 of 47 passes for 325 yards and one interception. He also had 16 yards rushing.

Brian Haith (#5) had eight catches for 104 yards. Joseph Anderson (#1) had eight catches for 55 yards. Joseph Warren (#21) returned seven kickoffs for 149 yards. 

Defensively, Robert Joseph (#7) led the Tigers with nine tackles (4 solo) and one TFL for one yard. Darrell Glasper (#6), Antonio St. Rose (#16) and Fulghum each had eight tackles. Curtis Thomas (#9), Anthony Webb (#12) and Washington each had one interception. Rolando Melancon (#99) had a sack for eleven yards.

"We have the potential to be a great football team…we just keep making too many costly mistakes. Part of that is because we are not gelling like I though we would. We have some great individual players who are challenged to find success as a team, " said Cole.

The Tigers are off next week. They face Rutgers on October 10^th in New Brunswick, New Jersey.