Outright SLC champion Colonels add River Bell to trophy case after 21-16 win over Lions

HAMMOND – A lot of construction has taken place involving athletic facilities in recent years at Nicholls, but the Colonels may have to seek a few more funds for a larger trophy case.

“We finally got all three. We got the ‘real NSU’ trophy. We got the River Bell, and now we have the championship trophy. It’s nice to have all three at home in Thibodaux,” Nicholls coach Tim Rebowe said.

The NSU trophy came via a forfeit win after Northwestern State canceled the remainder of its football season following the death of a player.

The River Bell trophy came with Thursday night’s 21-16 win over rival Southeastern Louisiana at Strawberry Stadium. While the Colonels claimed a share of the Southland Conference title five days earlier with a win over Lamar, the triumph over SLU secured the outright league title for Nicholls.

“I was just proud of the guys’ effort,” said Rebowe. “Outright conference champs. I don’t know when it’s been done. I’m sure we’ll look back and see when it happened. Not our best effort, I told the guys on the field.

“We had some guys that had to come in and give us some big-time plays, and I was just so happy for the way they pulled through in the fourth quarter.”

“Undisputed champs, 7-0. Everything looks better when that second column has a zero in it,” said receiver David Robinson, who continued to show off his big-play ability in his senior season with a long touchdown catch against the Lions.

“It feels great. All those fall camp practices and summer workouts, to see it all come into play and see how it played out, I love it for the us, the seniors, the coaches, I just love it for everybody, even the fans,” senior defensive back Jordan Jackson said.

“It feels amazing. It’s a dream come true. To go out with an undefeated conference championship and being able to go to the playoffs, and hopefully, make a good push in the playoffs, you can’t ask for anything else. Ending it on this field is like I started in 2019 when we won the conference championship, it’s picture perfect,” said senior defensive lineman Perry Ganci.

Jackson and Ganci were among a group of Nicholls defenders who came up big time and again for the Colonels.

A combination of turnovers and penalties by Nicholls allowed the Lions to move the football. Southeastern threatened again and again, but the Colonel defense held SLU to an opening touchdown and five field goals attempts. The Lions made three and missed two.

The Colonel defense was able to keep the Lions out of the end zone despite Nicholls losing several stalwarts early in the game.

One SLU’s initial possession of the game, Nicholls lost linebacker Quinton Sharkey, who was ejected from the game for targeting. The call, plus a previous personal foul penalty against Colonel defensive back Ethan Lee, allowed the Lions to move quickly downfield.

The Nicholls defense stiffened to set up what appeared would be the Lions’ first field goal attempt of the game on fourth-and-5 at the 6-yard line. Instead, SLU holder Justin Dumas took the snap from center and raced to his right, reaching for the pylon for the touchdown to give the Lions a 7-0 lead at the 9:49 mark of the first quarter.

Nicholls (7-0 in the SLC, 6-4 overall) tied the game 7-7 three plays into the second quarter when quarterback Pat McQuaide ran up the middle on third-and-goal from the 4-yard line.

The Colonels gained the lead on their next possession on a 78-yard pass to Robinson.

“They were kind of giving it to us, the double moves, and we took it on them. They bit on it hard and I got good blocks from my teammates down the field and took it to the house,” said Robinson.

On Southeastern’s ensuing possession, Nicholls safety Tyler Morton was ejected for targeting. The Lions reached the Colonels’ 14-yard line on the drive but had to settle on a 31-yard Riley Callaghan field goal to make the score 14-10.

Later, Nicholls would be without a third starter following an injury to linebacker Kershawn Fisher.

“I’m proud of our defensive effort,” Rebowe said. “We lost two of our bell cows, three really. We had two guys get ejected and then Kershawn went down. For those guys to step up and win this game, it was an incredible effort.”

A Nicholls fumble gave Southeastern (3-4 in the SLC, 3-8 overall) the ball at the Lions’ 41 with 1:41 remaining in the first half. The Lions had to settle on another field goal attempt, this time a 26-yard effort by Callaghan to pull SLU to within 14-10 at halftime.

Nicholls forced a three-and-out to open the second half.

On the Colonels’ first possession of the third quarter, Jaylon Spears hauled in a short pass from McQuaide and broke free on a 73-yard jaunt to give Nicholls a 21-13 lead less than four minutes into the second half.

Nicholls finished with 300 yards passing, 151 coming on the long scoring plays by Robinson and Spears.

The Colonel defense would limit SLU to three more field goal attempts in the game. Callahan made one of his attempts after a McQuaide interception, while missing two others. One of the missed kicks hit the right upright.

With Nicholls clinging to a 21-16 lead, the Lions had one last chance, getting the ball back at their own 12-yard line with 2:01 left in the game.

On third down, Ganci and Zack Bernard converged on a sack of Lions quarterback Eli Sawyer at the 9-yard line.

SLU was stopped on fourth down and the Nicholls offense took over and was able to run out the clock.

Nicholls finished with 392 yards of total offense.

McQuaide was 20 of 25 passing. The Nicholls ground game was limited to 89 yards on 33 attempts.

Southeastern was limited to 218 yards of total offense, 113 rushing and 105 passing.

Running back Rodeo Graham rushed for 58 yards and quarterback Zachary Clement 56. Clement was 12 of 25 passing for 98 yards.

The Colonels were penalized 10 times for 90 yards in the game.

“I think we had more penalties than tonight than we had all year long,” Rebowe said. “That’s something you probably know is coming at some point during the season. You don’t like it to happen. It’s good we still got the victory. We have some things to clean up. Again, we will enjoy this one. We have a couple of days to find out where we go play.”