No. 24 Abilene Christian Blanks West Georgia 59-0 on Homecoming

Abilene Christian spent October climbing back into the United Athletic Conference race. On Halloween, with a homecoming crowd at Anthony Field at Wildcat Stadium, the Wildcats finished the month by making sure nobody could question where they stand.

Tucker Parks threw two first-quarter touchdown passes to Cristian Driver, the defense forced five turnovers and pitched a shutout, and No. 24 Abilene Christian beat West Georgia 59-0 on Saturday afternoon. ACU led 21-0 after one quarter and 28-0 at halftime, and the second half was a formality.

The Wildcats improved to 5-4 overall and 4-0 in the UAC, setting up a showdown with No. 1 Tarleton State in Stephenville next week. West Georgia fell to 1-8 and 0-4.

A takeaway, then a track meet

West Georgia's first possession ended in a punt, and its second ended in disaster. Colton Fitzgerald, back in the lineup after being knocked out of the Tarleton game, threw a pass that Jacoby Davis intercepted at the ACU 28 with 11:45 left in the first quarter.

The Wildcats did not need long to make it count. Parks led an eight-play, 72-yard drive and finished it with a 26-yard touchdown pass to Driver at 8:44. Brandon Perez added the first of many extra points, and ACU led 7-0.

After a West Georgia punt, the Wildcats went 77 yards in six plays. The big gain was a 41-yard strike from Parks to Dallas Dudley, and Rovaughn Banks Jr. punched it in from 5 yards out at 3:15. It was 14-0.

Then came the drive that put the game away before the first quarter even ended. West Georgia went three-and-out again, and ACU needed only three plays and 1:13 to cover 53 yards. The last of them was another Parks-to-Driver connection, this one from 41 yards out with 1:01 left in the period. That made two touchdown catches in one quarter for a receiver coming off a six-catch, 133-yard day in the win at North Alabama, and a 21-0 lead after one quarter.

West Georgia's best chance, and another takeaway

To its credit, West Georgia did not fold. The Wolves put together their best drive of the half early in the second quarter, going 44 yards in nine plays and eating nearly five minutes off the clock. It ended the way the afternoon kept ending for them. Dillon Williams came off the edge, sacked Fitzgerald and knocked the ball loose, and Hudson Page recovered at the ACU 31 with 11:12 left in the half.

ACU answered with its most patient drive of the day, 11 plays and 69 yards over 6:31. Parks found tight end Jayden York for 31 yards along the way, and the quarterback finished it himself on a 1-yard keeper at 4:41. A 28-0 halftime lead felt about right for a game in which West Georgia's offense had produced more turnovers than first-half points.

The second half

The only real blemish of the day for Parks came early in the third quarter, when Sean Ferguson intercepted him at the West Georgia 5 with 13:15 left in the third quarter. It barely mattered. The ACU defense kept the Wolves bottled up, and the offense came back with a 10-play, 58-yard drive that took 4:35 and ended with Alex Broome's 5-yard touchdown run at 1:52 of the third quarter. That made it 35-0.

The defense then made its own contribution to the scoreboard math. Early in the fourth quarter, Santana Miller forced a fumble from West Georgia quarterback Collin Hurst, and Kortlin Rausaw recovered at the West Georgia 42. Five plays later, Parks hit tight end Jayden York for a 30-yard touchdown at 11:05, his third scoring pass of the afternoon, and it was 42-0.

From there it was about getting the reserves some work, and the defense kept handing them short fields. After a West Georgia punt, Deonte Dean broke a 53-yard touchdown run at 6:06, and Giovanni Cardenas kicked the extra point for 49-0. On the very next snap, Naeem Odeniyi fumbled and Chris Herpin recovered at the West Georgia 20. Backup quarterback Marcos Davila's drive stalled at the 12, and Perez made a 29-yard field goal at 4:17.

The Wildcats were not done. Carson Finney intercepted Hurst and returned it to the West Georgia 6, though a facemask penalty on the return pushed the ball back to the 21. On fourth-and-7 from the 18, Hill ran up the middle for a touchdown with 30 seconds left, and Kyler Meschi's extra point made it 59-0.

Who made the difference

Parks was sharp from the opening drive. The quarterback, who came in leading the UAC in completion percentage, finished 19 of 29 for 272 yards and three touchdowns with an interception and added a rushing touchdown. The interception near the West Georgia goal line was his only real mistake, and it came with ACU already up 28-0.

Driver did his damage early, finishing with four catches for 86 yards and scoring both of his touchdowns in the first quarter. York was Parks' most reliable target in the middle of the field, finishing with six catches for 85 yards, including the 30-yard score, and Dallas Dudley's 41-yard catch set up the second touchdown. Rovaughn Banks Jr. led the ground game with 15 carries for 58 yards and a score, and Broome added a touchdown of his own.

The defense was the story of the second half. Santana Miller led ACU with 11 tackles and forced a fumble, Jacoby Davis had an interception and a sack, and Dillon Williams' strip-sack ended West Georgia's best drive of the day. The Wildcats forced five turnovers, three of them in the fourth quarter, and never let the Wolves into the end zone.

For West Georgia, Christian Monfort was the lone bright spot on offense with 61 yards on 11 carries on the ground. Fitzgerald completed 8 of 15 passes for 58 yards with an interception before giving way to Hurst, and Chidu Bekee and Sean Ferguson led a defense that spent far too much time on the field.

The numbers that tell the story

Abilene Christian finished with 499 yards of offense, 281 through the air and 218 on the ground, while West Georgia managed 169. The Wildcats scored on nine possessions, and every one of the five West Georgia turnovers turned into points.

The turnover margin finished 5-1 in ACU's favor, and the only giveaway by the Wildcats came with a four-touchdown lead. West Georgia's offense never got going; its best drive of the first half covered 44 yards and ended in a strip-sack.

What it means

For Abilene Christian, the timing could not be better. The Wildcats are 4-0 in the United Athletic Conference for the first time under Keith Patterson, and ACU had not opened league play 4-0 since a six-year run from 2006 to 2011. They finished October a perfect 4-0, something the program had not done since its unbeaten 2010 regular season. The homecoming streak is now eight straight, with the last loss in 2017.

All of that sets up the game the UAC has been pointing toward. ACU and Tarleton State came into the weekend tied atop the league, and the Wildcats head to Stephenville on Nov. 7 to face the No. 1 team in the country. After that comes a trip to Austin Peay on Nov. 14 and a home finale against Eastern Kentucky on Nov. 21. Not long ago this was a 1-4 team. Now it has a chance to play its way into the FCS playoff picture in the final three weeks.

For West Georgia, the search for a second win goes on. A week after a 49-6 loss to No. 1 Tarleton State, the Wolves dropped to 1-8 and 0-4 in the conference. Next up is a trip to Central Arkansas on Nov. 7, then a home date with North Alabama on Nov. 14. Central Arkansas came into the weekend winless in UAC play, which makes that trip the likeliest chance left on the schedule.

Last word

This was the kind of game a team chasing a conference title is supposed to win this way, and ACU did not waste the chance to look sharp before the biggest game of its season. The Wildcats have now won four straight, they have not lost in October, and they head to Stephenville with a defense that just pitched a shutout. Tarleton will be a different test entirely. For one homecoming afternoon, though, everything worked.

ACU plays at No. 1 Tarleton State on Nov. 7 at 6 p.m. West Georgia visits Central Arkansas on Nov. 7.

Sources: ESPN box score (opens in a new tab) and play-by-play, and the ACU game week preview (opens in a new tab). More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Kaylee Kahn/ACU Athletics.