CCU needed a win at UL-Monroe to keep hopes of a bowl berth alive. How a wild game ended
The 2019 season will not be the first to include a bowl game for Coastal Carolina.
The Chanticleers needed to win their remaining two games to become bowl-eligible for the first time, and they were unable to make the final big offensive play in a wild 45-42 loss to Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday night at Malone Stadium in Monroe, La.
The final three touchdowns came in less than a minute of game time, and UL-Monroe scored two of them in a contest that featured nine lead changes and two ties.
Coastal’s final possession ended with a fumble on its 15-yard line on a wide shotgun snap with 2:11 to play.
“Our guys gave a valiant effort,” CCU head coach Jamey Chadwell told WRNN 99.5 FM after the game. “But I told them after the game I’m tired of telling them they gave a valiant effort. We’ve got to start doing some things to win games, you know. It comes back down to us beating ourselves in some ways, and we did that.”
Coastal (4-7) fell to 1-6 in the Sun Belt Conference with a home game against Texas State next Saturday remaining.
Three of the Chants’ last four losses have come by three points or less, and they are now 1-10 in their last 11 conference games.
“Obviously it’s really hard for sure after this one,” junior offensive lineman and team captain Trey Carter said. “But we’re just going to focus on the process. Last week is last week. You still remember what you messed up on and you still want to improve it. That’s all you can do.”
A Chandler Kryst interception at the CCU 24 in one-on-one coverage down the sideline with 3:26 to play gave CCU a final chance to tie or take the lead. But on third-and-13 from the CCU 21, Fred Payton was unable to corral a shotgun snap to his left and ULM lineman Ivin White Jr. pounced on it for a game-clinching turnover.
“We did have a chance to go win the game,” Chadwell said. “Even there at the end it’s third down and whatever and we dropped the ball on the snap. If we get on it at least we can try it on fourth down to go out that way. After offensively playing pretty well all game long it’s heartbreaking.”
ULM (5-6, 4-3) kept its chances of being selected for a bowl alive after winning six games last season but being overlooked by bowl game selection committees.
“I thought our guys came up ready to get a win and try to get us an opportunity to get to bowl-eligibility, we just didn’t get it done,” Chadwell said.
The teams combined for 1,015 yards of offense, including 563 by ULM. CCU junior C.J. Marable rushed for 172 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries and Payton threw for three touchdowns and completed 10 of 16 passes for 158 yards while splitting time at quarterback with Bryce Carpenter.
ULM senior dual-threat quarterback Caleb Evans completed 19 of 33 passes for 346 yards and two touchdowns while Josh Johnson rushed for 129 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries.
“Their quarterback played well and we just really didn’t have an answer for him,” Chadwell said.
CCU senior Ky’Jon Tyler, who entered the game 67 yards shy of 1,000 career receiving yards, dropped two potential touchdown passes – one on a deep pass down the sideline and another in the end zone – in the first half but redeemed himself with a couple touchdowns less than two minutes apart in the third quarter.
With the Chants trailing 24-14, Tyler caught a 29-yard TD pass from Payton, then returned a punt 72 yards for a TD to give the Chants a 28-24 lead.
Prior to Tyler’s receiving TD, the Chants converted a fourth-and-3 at their 44 on a 4-yard run by defensive lineman C.J. Brewer on a direct-snap fake punt. Brewer broke a pair of tackles to get the first down.
On his punt return, Tyler eschewed a fair catch despite having ULM’s Jahquan Bloomfield bearing down on him as he caught the ball, sidestepped Bloomfield to his left, then cut across the field to the right sideline, where he ran past punter Jared Porter for the score.
“Ky’Jon early on didn’t have a great game. He had a couple dropped touchdown passes and he was frustrated by it, but everybody picked him up and we had great blocking there and he made a great play,” Chadwell said.
But the Chants surrendered a lead three times in the second half.
After ULM quarterback Caleb Evans scored on a 32-yard option keeper late in the third quarter, the Chants regained the lead early in the fourth on a 41-yard Reese White TD reception from Payton, who rolled to his right and threw back to a wide-open White on the left side.
Following a Johnson 12-yard TD run that capped a 12-play, 75-yard ULM drive, C.J. Marable regained the lead for the Chants on the first play of CCU’s next possession, taking a late pitch from Payton around the right end and splitting a pair of defenders along the sideline en route to a 75-yard touchdown run.
But CCU’s final lead lasted less than a minute as Zach Jackson scored on a 34-yard reception with 6:47 to play. He caught a quick out and spun out of a tackle attempt by Kryst near the sideline and raced to the end zone.
The Chants failed to get a first down on their final two possessions that followed, as Payton was sacked on third down and fumbled the wide snap.
The first quarter featured offensive fireworks as each team scored a pair of touchdowns.
Coastal scored touchdowns on two of its first three possession and ULM scored TDs on three of its first four drives to take a 21-14 lead into halftime.
The Chants struck first on the game’s opening possession on a 3-yard Marable run that was set up by a 51-yard Carpenter pass to Larry Collins Jr. to the ULM 3-yard line.
ULM answered on its first possession with a 12-yard Johnson run, and took a 14-7 lead on a 98-yard Evans pass to Markis McCray, who caught the pass in stride behind the CCU defense at the ULM 40 and raced the remaining 60 yards for the score.
Coastal answered on its third possession, driving 75 yards in nine plays to score on a 16-yard Payton pass to Jaivon Heiligh over the middle.
With the game tied at 14, Tarron Jackson sacked Evans and forced a fumble that officials’ first signaled was recovered by the Chants at the ULM 15, but the ruling was changed and ULM retained possession.
The Warhawks took a 21-14 lead on a 10-yard Austin Vaughn run with 9 minutes left in the first half.
Two plays after Tyler’s second drop, ULM junior linebacker Cortez Sisco intercepted a wobbly pass on third-and-9 from the ULM 28-yard line after Carpenter rolled to his left and was hit on the arm as he threw by defensive lineman Ty Shelby.
Sisco, who entered the game fifth in the Sun Belt with 83 tackles, had an amazing 18 tackles and an interception in the first half and finished with 19 total tackles, six shy of the school record set in 1994.
Porter gave ULM a 24-14 lead early in the third quarter with a 37-yard field goal.
This story was originally published November 23, 2019 at 9:42 PM.
