Wildcats Overpower Eastern New Mexico, 59-17
By: ACU Athletics
Updated: October 6, 2012
ABILENE - Mitchell Gale
threw four touchdown passes and Abilene Christian University scored on
three returns Saturday night to power the Wildcats to a 59-17 win over
Eastern New Mexico University in Shotwell
Stadium.
The Wildcats, 4-2
overall and 2-2 in the Lone Star Conference South Division, won their
second consecutive game and seventh in a row over the Greyhounds (2-4
overall and 1-3 in the LSC) and 12th
in 14 years.
The defense gave up 244
rushing yards to ENMU's option-oriented offense, but intercepted Wesley
Wood three times, returning two of them for touchdowns. ACU senior
linebacker Mike Wallace had one of them, a 48-yarder
that was his fifth pick in the past three games.
Gale, a senior,
completed 18 of 28 passes for 252 yards in only three quarters of play,
leading his team to its most points since a season-opening 51-0 shutout
of McMurry University. The Wildcats outgained the
Greyhounds, 397 yards to 312.
Cade Stone began the TD
parade early, running the opening kickoff back 92 yards for a TD and a
7-0 ACU lead. When the Wildcats muffed the Greyhounds' opening-drive
punt, Wesley Wood answered for his team three
plays later with a 4-yard TD run, tying the score.
ACU regained the lead,
14-7, when Darrell Cantu-Harkless caught a pass from Gale, slipped out
of a tackle at the 20-yard line and finished off a 39-yard scoring play
with 3:51 left in the first quarter.
The Wildcats went 99
yards for their next score, a 12-play drive capped by Gale's 12-yard TD
pass to junior wide receiver Darian Hogg at the 12:30 mark. On ENMU's
next possession, a diving interception by freshman
cornerback Tyler Chapa at the Greyhounds' 44-yard line gave the ball
back to ACU, which converted the turnover into more points when Morgan
Lineberry kicked a 29-yard field goal.
Return yards again
stymied the Greyhounds when Wallace's interception of Wood covered
nearly half of the field, upping ACU's lead to 31-7. Eastern tacked on a
30-yard field goal by Baca with three seconds left,
shortening the first-half deficit to 31-10.
ACU scored three times
in the third quarter, increasing its lead to 38-10 on its opening drive
when Charcandrick West caught a 21-yard TD pass from Gale. Defensive
lineman Defensive lineman Melvin Shead intercepted
a Wood pass on the Greyhound 7-yard line and returned it for a TD, and
Hogg caught his second scoring pass of the game, an 8-yarder, with 14
seconds left.
ENMU tacked on points
with 8:40 remaining in the game when Wood ran 5 yards for a TD to reduce
the margin to 52-17, but ACU answered right back. Alternating junior
John David Baker at quarterback and freshman
wide receiver Caleb Stone in the Wildcat formation, ACU marched 56 yards
for its eighth and final TD of the game, with sophomore Marcel Threat
running 5 yards for the closing score.
Woods was the game's leading rusher, running 27 times for 128 yards and two TDs. He completed nine of 13 passs for 68 yards.
ACU was led in rushing
by Threat's 70 yards on 12 carries, and Gabriel's eight catches for 112
yards. Cantu-Harkless had four catches for 80 yards.
The Wildcats travel to Canyon to play longtime rival West Texas A&M next Saturday at 6 p.m.
