Reversal of fortunes leads Colonels to 31-10 win over McNeese in SLC opener

LAKE CHARLES – Less than five minutes into the game, it was evident a reversal of fortune was in the cards for the Nicholls Colonels in the Southland Conference opener on Saturday night.

Nicholls was forced to punt on its opening possession of the game, but a muffed punt return attempt by McNeese State’s Jonathan Harris gave the Colonels the ball at the Cowboys’ 5-yard line.

Running back Collin Guggenheim, a quarterback in high school, took a snap from center in a wildcat formation and tossed 2 yards to Neno Lemay for a touchdown to give Nicholls a quick 7-0 lead.

“Coach Rebowe and Coach Rob (Christophel, the Nicholls offensive coordinator) put a lot of trust in me, and I am very appreciative of that. We have a lot of athletes on the field. We are trying to get them involved in as many ways as we can. Going back to my high school roots a little bit, it does feel good. We just executed the play and let the chips fall where they may,” said Guggenheim, who was a high school quarterback at John Curtis.

In the previous two games for Nicholls, Colonel punting team mistakes gave their opponent an early 7-0 lead they were never able to recover from in one-sided losses.

“We’ve been on (the opposite side of special teams errors) for the past couple of games. It was good for our guys to see that. I thought special teams played well all game long. Maurquel Price did a good job down there. He was Johnny on the spot and recovered. The offense did what they had to do. They put it in the end zone. We got seven, which was huge, and we didn’t look back from there,” Nicholls coach Tim Rebowe said.

It was the Colonels’ time to ride special teams mistakes on their way to their first win of the season for Nicholls with the 31-10 victory at Louis Bonnett Field at Cowboy Stadium.

Along with their conference-opening win, the Colonels improved to 1-3 overall. McNeese dropped to 0-5 overall and 1-0 in the SLC.

“We preached it all week to be 1-0. You are going to need those wins down the road. Those guys have been working hard. We are going to enjoy this one. It’s going to be a long season. We are going to enjoy this one and get back to work on it Monday morning,” said Rebowe.

“Our real season starts right now,” Guggenheim said. “That’s the goal, to be 1-0 every weekend in conference. Hopefully, at the end of this, we can hold up that Southland Conference championship trophy and make a run in the playoffs, and then, hopefully, we have a chance to play for a national championship. That’s our goal. That’s anybody’s goal. I just really like where we are.”

Unlike the first three games of the season, the Colonels were opportunistic on both sides of the ball.

After downing a punt at the McNeese 3-yard line, the Colonels forced a three-and-out, getting the ball back at the Cowboys’ 47 with 37 seconds left in the opening quarter.

Nicholls turned the good field position into another touchdown on a 25-yard pass from Patrick McQuaide to David Robinson to extend the Colonels’ lead to 14-0 lead.

“We talked earlier this week about field position. We had been on the downside of that the last couple of weeks and how big it was for us to start in the plus end and make them go the distance. I thought field position was the difference in this game,” Rebowe said.

McNeese’s lone touchdown of the first half came on a 24-yard pass from Nate Glanz to Jon McCall that allowed the Colonels to rally to within 14-7 with 4:42 left in the first half.

The Colonels took advantage of another McNeese mistake when a face-mask penalty against the Cowboys on third down kept a drive alive late in the second quarter, setting up a 25-yard Gavin Lasseigne field goal to extend the lead with 17-7 with 5:53 remaining before halftime.

The Nicholls defense got into the scoring act when Quinton Sharkey returned an errant Glanz pass 22-yards for a touchdown go give the Colonels their 24-7 halftime lead.

“It comes down to film study,” Sharkey said. “I’ve seen that so many times throughout the week. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to pick it off in practice, but game time comes around, you’ve got to make plays and that’s happened.

“The biggest emphasis this week was win the turnover battle. That’s something we failed to do the last couple of weeks. We just executed this week. We didn’t allow them to come back. We didn’t allow them to get momentum.”

“They were running a little two-minute offense,” Rebowe said of the Cowboys. “That’s when Sharkey stepped in front and took it back. That 24-0 at half was huge.”

After a 44-yard Garrison Smith field goal made the score 24-10 at the 6:54 mark of the third quarter, the Colonels were marching and made one of their few mistakes on the night, fumbling the ball away at the McNeese 14-yard line.

The Colonel defense, not playing with their backs to the wall as in previous games, flexed their muscles when Tyler Morton intercepted a Cowboys pass on the ensuing drive. It was the second year in a row for Morton to intercept a pass against McNeese.

The Nicholls running game took over from there, adding a 2-yard touchdown run by Jaylon Spears with 12:08 left in the game to account for the 31-10 final.

“I’m just proud of the way we executed the whole night. I thought we took advantage of every opportunity we had. I thought we put the defense in some good spots, which we haven’t done. We finally put them in some good spots to kind of then them play their game and what they’re capable of, and I think it showed tonight,” said Guggenheim.

Guggenheim rushed for 103 yards against McNeese, marking the seventh time in his career to top 100 yards in a game.

“We played some really good teams in the first three games, so just getting that confidence back and getting in the groove and what’s expected of this team and the kind of caliber of guys that we have, it feels really good to get back,” Guggenheim said.

McQuaide was 14 of 24 passing for 120 yards and one touchdown.

Falling behind early and forced to throw the ball, Glantz finished 14 of 30 passing for 199 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.

McNeese’s top rusher was D’Angelo Durham with 45 yards on nine carries.

The Colonels will be at home for the next two weeks, starting with homecoming against Northwestern State next Saturday.