Southland Conference Football News, Notes, and Awards

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Another week of football is in the books in the Southland Conference. Let’s take a look at some of the action as well as the weekly award winners.

Offensive Player of the Week

Josh Fink of Abilene Christian had 12 receptions for 112 yards and one touchdown in the Wildcats 45-20 victory over Houston Baptist. The 12 catches are tied for seventh-most in single-game history for the school. It also moved him up to No. 4 on the school’s all-time receptions list with 159 and made him the 12th Wildcat to amass 2,000 or more yards for his career (2001). In the game, his teammate, Kobe Clark finished with 107 yards on nine catches and they become the first ACU duo to ever do that, at least once, in four seasons. The Wildcats are now 2-3 in conference play and they handed HBU their second conference loss in a row (1-2).

Defensive Player of the Week

This week, the honors go to Michael Lawson of Lamar with his 10 tackles (five solo and five assisted) to go with two interceptions. One of those picks sealed the win in the third overtime of the Cardinals 20-17 win over Sam Houston St. Most of his plays were at key moments of the game. His first pick stopped a Bearcats drive at midfield with around five minutes left, and two of his tackles came on third down. With the win. Lamar handed Sam Houston its first conference loss (3-1).

Special Teams Player of the Week

In the 40-31 win over McNeese, kicker Hayden Ray connected on four field goals of 34, 39, 25, and 39 yards. Two fo those came in the final eight minutes of the decisive fourth quarter to take his team to 2-1 in conference play. For the year, Ray is 9-9 on FG attempts and 17-18 on extra-point tries.

Other Action

Nicholls (3-0) is now the only unbeaten team in the conference after their 45-35 home win over Northwestern St. In the game, the Colonels totaled 537 yards of offense with 348 coming in the ground game. They controlled time of possession and never had to punt in the game.

UIW (3-1) kept pace with Nicholls and are a half-game behind after they hung on to beat Southeastern La. 27-21. They entered the fourth quarter with a 27-14 lead and then SLU’s Marcus Cooper made it 27-21 with a 16-yard run with 5:54 left in the game. SLU got the ball back with 22 seconds left at their own 36 but they would run out of time.

Come back next week when NGSC Sports will have more from the Southland Conference Football season.