Bobcats Win First SBC Game in Two Years

By Brenden Snow
Sports Reporter

November 19th, 2015 was the last time Texas State defeated a Sun Belt opponent, when they beat University of Louisiana Monroe 16-13. Since then, the Bobcats have lost 13 straight to conference foes, until tonight.

The Bobcats went into Conway, South Carolina and matched up with Coastal Carolina for the first time in program history. The Bobcats put in their best overall performance of the season and took a 27-7 win home.

Offensively Quarterback Damian Williams looked like a whole new player. He completed 27/38 passes for 269 yards, a pair of touchdowns and one interception. Career highs in attempts, completions, yards and passing touchdowns for the senior transfer from Mississippi State.

Along with the emergence of the passing game came the running game. The team collected 52 carries for 238 yards and a score. While seven different Bobcats carried the ball it was once again freshman Anthony Smith who led the way with 12 carries for 70 yards and the team’s lone rushing touchdown.

Defensively, it seemed the Bobcats had found their identity again that they established early in the season. The team held the Chanticleers to just 34 rushing yards, 183 yards total and a measly nine first downs for the game.

Coastal Carolina had two different quarterbacks get reps between senior Tyler Keane and junior Kilton Anderson. Neither signal caller was able to get much going as they combine to go 13/27 for 148 yards.

Overall, Texas State would go on to statistically dominate Coastal Carolina in just about every stat. They controlled the time of possession, 36:53-23:07, passed them by 507-183 and gained 23 more first downs than the Chanticleers.

The scoring started early for the Bobcats after a 54 yard touchdown pass from Williams to Gabe Schrade, just three minutes and 45 seconds into the contest. Coastal would counter in the first quarter with a defensive touchdown after William’s fumble, but that would be all. Bobcats scored the last 20 points of the game in balanced fashion as the team put up points in every quarter.

This game was the kind you wanted to see coming out of the bye, and being well prepared for a team still getting its feet wet in division I play. Now, we will see if the team can carry the nice play and emotion into next week’s homecoming game against New Mexico State.

Featured image by Tino Manor.