Courtesy of LA Tech Athletic Communications
Louisiana Tech overcame a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter, but the Bulldogs ended up falling to Tulsa in overtime by a final score of 23-20 on Saturday night inside Joe Aillet Stadium.
LA Tech (1-2) used three different quarterbacks throughout the game. And it was a pair of redshirt freshmen – Blake Baker and Evan Bullock – each led touchdown drives in the fourth quarter.
The QB changes was to try to find a spark offensively. Down 17-7 heading into the final stanza, the offense had only 155 total yards and was just 1-of-9 on third down.
“On offense, you don’t have 11 guys that are executing together or all at once,” said head coach Sonny Cumbie. “That is the thing about offensive football. We all have to be on the same page. We have not started the game fast on offense at all with efficiency and there are various reasons for that and those are things we are aware of. In terms of putting a game plan together, and allowing our guys to start football games fast that’s the biggest thing from an offense standpoint.”
The first spark was provided by Baker who after getting sacked for a loss of eight yards on the first play of the fourth, connected on three straight passes – 14 yards to Eli Finley, 53 more yards to Finley, and 19 yards to Solo Lewis.
The trio of completions put LA Tech on the 1-yard line. It took three quarterback sneaks, but the third one crossed the goal line to make it a 17-13 deficit (extra-point attempt was unsuccessful after a high snap sailed over the holders head).
The Bulldog defense than forced a 3-and-out by Tulsa (2-2) for the seventh time tonight. On the ensuing drive, Baker got injured after trying to scramble to pick up extra yards.
Insert Bullock who would get the ball with 4:55 left to go. After a 30-yard punt return by Lewis gave the ‘Dogs good field position at the Tulsa 48-yard line, Bullock would ultimately find Finley open over the middle for a 24-yard touchdown to put LA Tech up, 20-17.
The Golden Hurricane would convert three first downs to get in field goal range for Seth Morgan who drilled a 45-yarder to tie things up at 20-20 and force overtime.
Tulsa won the coin toss and elected to start on defense in OT. On LA Tech’s second play, Bullock was sacked from his blind side and fumbled which was recovered by the Golden Hurricane and nearly returned for a touchdown. Four plays later, Morgan gave the visitors the win with a 34-yard made field goal.
The game was dominated by both defenses. Tulsa struck first on a 5-play, 40-yard drive midway through the first quarter. It took a fortunate bounce on a punt return for LA Tech to score its first points as Cedric Woods corralled the ball after it hit a Bulldog. He then raced 49 yards up the right sideline to give the home team the ball at the Tulsa 25-yard line. Jimmy Holiday found the end zone on a 1-yard rush on fourth down to tie things up at 7-7.
The only other points of the first half came off the foot of Tulsa’s Morgan who hit a 32-yarder to give the Golden Hurricane a 10-7 edge at halftime.
Jack Turner, Baker, and Bullock combined to go 17-of-30 for 197 yards. Finley secured three catches for a career-high 91 receiving yards. Defensively, Zach Zimos and Blake Thompson combined for 25 tackles and three tackles-for-loss (team had nine total).
“Our crowd was great,” said Cumbie. “The atmosphere was amazing. Our student section was phenomenal, and I think there was an advantage from that standpoint. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t capitalize on it as a team. We didn’t make enough plays and on offense, we did not play well.”
Tech opens CUSA play next Saturday at FIU.
“We still have a lot of football left to play with conference ahead of us,” said Cumbie. “We start next week on the road at FIU and will turn the page on Monday after we watch this and learn from it. There will be a lot of games like this, there are a lot of good teams in our league. “
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