East Texas A&M Edges Southeastern Louisiana 10-7 as Ozlo Rigby's 49-Yard Kick Holds Up

Two kickers got the same kind of chance in the final two minutes on Halloween afternoon in Commerce. Only one of them made it.

Ozlo Rigby drilled a 49-yard field goal with 1:55 left to break a 7-7 tie, and Southeastern Louisiana's Drew Talley missed a 52-yard try with one second on the clock as East Texas A&M held on to beat Southeastern Louisiana 10-7 on Saturday at Ernest Hawkins Field at Memorial Stadium. It snapped a three-game losing streak against Southeastern in what East Texas A&M billed as a Battle of the Lions.

East Texas A&M improved to 3-6 and 3-3 in the Southland Conference. Southeastern, which was receiving votes in both FCS polls coming in, fell to 4-5 and 2-4.

A special teams strike, then a long stalemate

Southeastern needed less than two minutes to get on the board, and its offense never touched the ball to do it. East Texas A&M went three-and-out on the opening possession, with Jake Dalmado sacking Reese Mooney on third down, and Ben Mehan's 36-yard punt from the East Texas A&M 22 came down to Dkhai Joseph at the Southeastern 42. Joseph took it 58 yards to the end zone. Drew Talley's kick made it 7-0 with 13:01 still on the first-quarter clock.

The first half was a festival of loose footballs. Southeastern's defense took one away late in the first quarter, when Dalmado punched the ball free and Southeastern recovered at its own 47, but the visitors gave it right back on downs at the East Texas A&M 34 with 15 seconds left in the period. East Texas A&M answered early in the second quarter. Quay Middlebrooks, the Lions' leading rusher coming in, broke a 35-yard touchdown run at 13:26, and Rigby's extra point tied it at 7.

Southeastern's next threat ended the same way. Kyle Lowe hit Joseph for a 54-yard gain to flip the field, but a few plays later Deantre Jackson fumbled and Colin Douglas recovered for East Texas A&M at its own 28. The rest of the half was a punting exhibition, and the teams went to the locker room tied 7-7.

The second half belonged to the defenses

If the first half was sloppy, the third quarter was suffocating, and neither offense scored. Calvin Smith Jr. ripped off a 39-yard run for Southeastern, but the possession that mattered most came late in the quarter, when Southeastern backup quarterback Issac Mooring III was intercepted by Jamari Mosley, who returned it 23 yards with 2:07 left. East Texas A&M could not cash it in. The Southeastern front kept collapsing the pocket on Mooney, and the home team punted it back.

The fourth quarter opened with more of the same. Carter Hanberry, Southeastern's leading tackler coming in, picked off Mooney at the Southeastern 40 at 12:06. Southeastern moved it far enough for a long field goal try, but Talley's 53-yard attempt missed at 8:45, and the score stayed 7-7.

The turning point: a drive that went backward and still won

East Texas A&M's winning possession was set up by its defense. Three plays after Southeastern recovered an EJ Oakmon fumble at its own 39 with 7:00 left, Lowe kept the ball on third-and-5 and linebacker Wesley York Jr. knocked it loose. Dylan Scott recovered at the Southeastern 44 with 5:54 to go, and East Texas A&M had a short field.

Oakmon ripped off a 15-yard run to the 29, picked up a first down with a 6-yard carry to the 18 and then pushed it to the 15.

Then the drive started moving in reverse. A false start backed the Lions up to the 20. Middlebrooks got 4 yards back, but on third-and-8 a chop block wiped out the play and marched East Texas A&M 15 yards in the wrong direction. Suddenly it was third-and-23 from the 31, and a short completion to Simpson gained nothing.

That left coach Clint Dolezel with a 49-yard field goal try or a punt in a tie game with two minutes to go. The Lions sent out Rigby, and the kick was good with 1:55 left. It was the only field goal of the game.

Southeastern still had time, and it nearly had enough. On third-and-5 from its own 36, Douglas, who had already recovered a fumble in the first half, intercepted Lowe at midfield with 1:20 to play. That looked like the end. Oakmon carried three more times to bleed the clock, but East Texas A&M could not get a first down, and Mehan's 21-yard punt went out of bounds at the Southeastern 25 with 20 seconds left.

Then Joseph nearly stole it. Lowe found him for 21 yards and then for 19 more, and Southeastern was suddenly at the East Texas A&M 35 with seven seconds left. Lowe spiked the ball with six seconds to go, East Texas A&M called timeout, and Talley lined up from 52 yards. The kick was no good with one second left, and East Texas A&M could finally exhale.

Who made the difference

Rigby only needed one swing, and he made it count. The 49-yarder was his only field goal attempt of the day, and he added the extra point after Middlebrooks' touchdown for all four of his points. Talley, his counterpart, missed from 53 and 52 yards.

Oakmon was the steadiest piece of an offense that struggled to throw. The running back carried 22 times for 98 yards and did most of his damage on the winning drive. Mooney finished 16 of 27 for 89 yards with an interception, and Micah Simpson was his top target with seven catches for 43 yards.

The East Texas A&M defense deserves the biggest share of the credit. It forced four turnovers and did not allow an offensive touchdown. Douglas and Mosley each finished with seven tackles and an interception, and Douglas added a fumble recovery. Orion Kupu also had seven stops, and York's forced fumble set up the winning drive.

Joseph was the most dangerous player on the field, catching 11 passes for 139 yards and adding the punt return touchdown. Lowe completed 18 of 29 passes for 173 yards with an interception, and Calvin Smith Jr. ran five times for 78 yards. Jake Dalmado was everywhere for the visiting defense, with 13 tackles, three tackles for loss, a sack and a forced fumble. Khalid Moore had 10 tackles and two sacks, and Kenneth Ford added nine tackles and a sack.

The numbers that tell the story

Neither offense reached 300 yards. Southeastern finished with 299 and out-gained East Texas A&M by roughly 60, and East Texas A&M threw for only 89 yards on 27 attempts. The home team won anyway with a ground game that kept chipping away and a defense that took the ball away four times.

The turnover column was a mess for both sides. Southeastern gave it away four times, on two fumbles and two interceptions, and East Texas A&M gave it away three times.

What it means

For East Texas A&M, this is the kind of win a rebuilding program remembers. The Lions came in at 2-6 and losers of two straight, including a 30-19 home loss to Prairie View A&M in the first Big Cat Cup a week earlier and a 43-24 defeat at Houston Christian. This is a roster with 67 newcomers, seven new position coaches and no returning all-conference players. Beating a team that was receiving votes in both FCS polls, and doing it with defense, says something about where Dolezel's group is headed.

For Southeastern Louisiana, the season is slipping. The visiting Lions fell to 4-5 overall and 2-4 in the Southland, and this loss stings in a different way than the 45-24 defeat at Stephen F. Austin did earlier this fall. That one came against an unbeaten team. This one came against a team Southeastern beat 59-14 last November, and it ended Southeastern's three-game winning streak in the series, which it still leads 7-6-1.

Last word

East Texas A&M's offense did not do much on Saturday, and it did not need to. The Lions forced four turnovers, kept a team that was receiving votes in both national polls out of the end zone on offense and got one big kick when it mattered. Southeastern, meanwhile, scored seven points and none of them came from its offense. With Joseph and Smith on the field, that should not happen, and it is the question Frank Scelfo's staff has to answer before the stretch run.

East Texas A&M visits Nicholls on Nov. 7. Southeastern hosts Incarnate Word on Nov. 7 at Strawberry Stadium at 6 p.m.

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

Photos: East Texas A&M University Athletics.