by SAN ANTONIO – One week after lamenting the lack of energy and enthusiasm his team played with in a loss against Stephen F. Austin, ACU head coach Adam Dorrel had no such complaints about his team after the Wildcats dismantled Incarnate Word, 45-20, at Benson Stadium.
The win – which pushes the Wildcats to 2-3 overall and 2-1 in the Southland Conference – is ACU’s first on the road since a 37-35 win over Stephen F. Austin on Nov. 15, 2014, snapping a 14-game skid. The Cardinals, meanwhile, dropped to 0-4 and 0-1 and fall to 2-7 all-time against ACU as the Wildcats snapped a two-game losing streak in San Antonio.
Saturday night’s game was never in doubt as the Wildcats led throughout, at one point scoring 31 unanswered points to go from a 7-6 lead in the first quarter to a 35-6 halftime lead and 38-6 advantage early in the third quarter. The Wildcats scored 28 second-quarter points on two touchdown runs by quarterback Dallas Sealey (Chickasaw Nation), a 16-yard scoring pass from Sealey to Troy Grant and a six-yard scoring run by Tracy James.
Sealey finished the game 21 of 31 for 306 yards and one score and ran the ball nine times for 22 yards and three touchdowns. James carried the ball 13 times for 54 yards and one score as ACU had 97 yards on 31 carries as a team. Sealey now has eight career 300-yard passing games and 11 250-yard passing games, and was part of a night that saw the Wildcats rack up 447 yards of total offense.
The ACU defense, meanwhile, continued to play well, holding Incarnate Word to just 237 total yards on 56 plays, limited the Cardinals to just 3 of 13 on third downs and forced two turnovers, a forced fumble by Adonis Davis and an interception by Sam Denmark, both in the decisive second quarter.
The defense also came up with a couple of big stops in the second quarter and in the second half Erik Huhn blocked a punt that set up a score.
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
• Dallas Sealey finished the game with 306 passing yards and is 10th in ACU history in passing yards with 4,790. Parker McKenzie (2013-16) is ninth on the all-time list with 5,246 passing yards.
• Dallas ran for three touchdowns in the game – all in the first half – to give him 11 in his career. Sealey had a career-high four rushing touchdowns last Sept. 10 in a loss to Northern Colorado.
• Senior MLB Sam Denmark had an interception late in the first half, his first pick of the season and sixth of his career. Four of his six career interceptions have come against Incarnate Word as he picked off a pair of passes against the Cardinals in a 21-0 win in Abilene on Sept. 20, 2014, and had another against UIW in a 52-27 win in Abilene on Oct. 22, 2016.
UP NEXT
The Wildcats return to Anthony Field at Wildcat Stadium as they host McNeese at 7 p.m. in a game that will be broadcast nationally on Eleven Sports.
