UIW Scores 28 in the First Quarter, Buries Northwestern State 66-14

Halloween in San Antonio came with no suspense and plenty of carnage. UIW scored four touchdowns in the first quarter, seven before halftime, and rolled past Northwestern State 66-14 on Saturday afternoon in a Southland Conference game that was functionally over by the time most of the crowd found its seats.

The Cardinals piled up 566 yards, forced four turnovers and returned one of them for a touchdown. Emmett Brown threw for 312 yards and two scores before handing the rest of the afternoon to his backup, Jayden Hibbler ran for three touchdowns on just eight carries, and Roy Alexander caught eight passes for 173 yards. It was the third straight win for UIW, which came in at 4-4 overall and 3-2 in league play, and it was the kind of afternoon a team needs after an October that included two narrow road losses to ranked opponents.

Northwestern State, which entered 0-8 and 0-5 in the Southland, was down 28 points before the first quarter ended.

Twenty-eight points in one quarter

UIW took the opening kickoff and needed five plays and 1:27 to go 70 yards, with Hibbler finishing it on a 17-yard run at the 11:22 mark. That was the slow drive.

On Northwestern State's first possession, Zach Wilcke threw a pass that D'Arius Carmouche picked off and returned 29 yards for a touchdown at 10:09. Two possessions, two touchdowns, and the Demons' offense had already handed over seven points of its own.

The Cardinals kept coming. Brown found Jacob Emmers for a 28-yard touchdown at 7:32 on a six-play, 65-yard drive that took 50 seconds. Then Lontrell Turner punched in a 5-yard run with 1:01 left in the quarter to finish a five-play, 35-yard march. That made it 28-0 after one, which is the kind of first-quarter line that usually shows up against a Division II opponent in September, not a conference foe on Halloween.

Northwestern State finally answers, briefly

To their credit, the Demons put together their best drive of the day to open the second quarter. Wilcke led a 10-play, 75-yard march that took 4:21 and ended with a 17-yard touchdown pass to Camryn Davis, cutting the deficit to 28-7.

It lasted about as long as it took UIW to line up again. The Cardinals answered with a six-play, 67-yard drive that ended on Brown's 15-yard touchdown pass to Jamir Roberts. Then Hibbler went 52 yards for a touchdown at 8:06 on a two-play, 57-yard possession, and he added a 16-yard scoring run with 57 seconds left in the half to cap a three-play, 63-yard drive that took 34 seconds.

Halftime score: UIW 49, Northwestern State 7. Hibbler had three touchdowns on what amounted to a light workload, and the rest of the game became an exercise in getting reps for the second unit.

The turning point: the pick six

Picking a turning point in a 52-point game is mostly a formality. Still, if there was one play that told everybody where this was headed, it was Carmouche's interception return at 10:09 of the first quarter.

Northwestern State had just watched UIW march the length of the field on the opening drive. The Demons needed something, anything, to settle in. Instead, three plays into their first possession, Wilcke's pass went the wrong way and Carmouche took it 29 yards to the end zone. It was 14-0 less than five minutes into the game, and from that point the Demons were playing from a deficit that their offense was never built to erase.

Wilcke finished 8-of-24 for 79 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions. Carmouche, Pig Cage and Patrick Batiste each picked off a pass for UIW, and the Demons lost the turnover battle 4-1. Abram Johnston took over at quarterback later and went 5-of-11 for 81 yards, including a 47-yard completion to Jake Peveto, and Johnston scored the Demons' second touchdown on a 1-yard run at 8:28 of the fourth quarter to finish a nine-play, 75-yard drive.

Brown, Hibbler and Alexander do the damage

Brown completed 21 of 32 passes for 312 yards and two touchdowns without an interception, and he did most of that before halftime. This was a week after he was named Southland Offensive Player of the Week for a five-touchdown day against McNeese, and he looked every bit of it against an overmatched secondary.

His favorite target was Alexander, who caught eight balls for 173 yards with a long of 44. That is 21.6 yards per catch, which is the statistical way of saying Northwestern State had no answer for him on the outside. Emmers added five catches for 68 yards and his touchdown, and Roberts caught three passes for 59 yards and two scores.

Hibbler only needed eight carries to reach 102 yards and three touchdowns. His 52-yard run in the second quarter was the longest play of the game on the ground, and his efficiency (12.8 yards per carry) made the Northwestern State run defense look like it was arriving a step late all day. Turner chipped in 60 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries.

David Rasor took over at quarterback in the second half and went 8-of-12 for 87 yards, including a 20-yard touchdown pass to Roberts at 3:12 of the third quarter. Nick Rigas made all nine of his extra points and added a 44-yard field goal at 12:06 of the fourth quarter to push the score to 59-7. Jackson Fields closed the scoring with a 14-yard touchdown run with 2:08 left, finishing a 10-play, 61-yard drive that took 6:20 off the clock.

Defensively, linebacker Declan Williams led UIW with 12 tackles, and Logan Granville recorded a sack. For Northwestern State, linebacker KB Anderson-Dale had two sacks and safety Ja'Marion Bonner made nine tackles, which is what happens to a safety when the other team keeps getting into the secondary.

Key stats

UIW outgained Northwestern State 566 to 207. The Cardinals had 31 first downs to the Demons' 15, went 2-for-2 on fourth down, and finished with 399 passing yards between Brown and Rasor. Northwestern State managed 40 rushing yards on 35 carries, a 1.1-yard average that tells you most of what you need to know about the line of scrimmage.

The only real blemish for UIW was penalties. The Cardinals were flagged eight times for 99 yards, compared with four for 45 by Northwestern State. When you win by 52 that becomes a film-room note rather than a problem, but it is the kind of thing that matters more against the top of the conference.

Third downs were close to even on paper: Northwestern State converted 6 of 17 and UIW 6 of 14. The difference was that UIW rarely needed third down, because it was busy hitting explosive plays on first and second.

What it means

For UIW, this was about stacking wins after a brutal stretch. The Cardinals lost 28-26 at then-No. 5 Stephen F. Austin on Oct. 3 and then fell at top-10 Lamar a week later, two games that came down to the wire. Since then they have beaten UTRGV, handled McNeese 38-6 (our recap of that one is here), and now flattened Northwestern State. That is three straight wins, and the offense has scored 104 points in the last two weeks.

At 5-4 overall and 4-2 in the Southland, UIW has three straight wins and a month left to make its case. The losses to SFA and Lamar likely leave the Cardinals needing help in the league race, but they are taking care of the part they control.

For Northwestern State, the losses keep piling up. The Demons fall to 0-9 and 0-6 in the Southland. They have had close calls this season, including a 31-27 loss to Nicholls that ended on a last-second interception, but this was not one of them. Four turnovers and a 28-point first quarter are not a formula that works against anyone in this league.

The take

UIW did exactly what a good team should do to a winless one: it ended the competitive portion of the afternoon early and spent the second half handing out playing time. The scary part for the rest of the Southland is how easy it looked. Brown is throwing with confidence, Alexander is a legitimate big-play threat, and Hibbler is turning eight carries into a full day's work.

The Cardinals' season will still be judged by what they did in those two close road losses and what they do in November. But right now, they look like a team that has figured out who it is. Northwestern State, meanwhile, is still searching for the answer to a much simpler question.

The full box score (opens in a new tab) has the rest of the numbers.

Sources: ESPN box score and gamecast, UIW Athletics game preview. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: UIW Athletics (file photo from Oct. 24, 2026).