Box Score Final Stats
MONTICELLO – The University of Arkansas at Monticello football team led by 10 points heading into the fourth quarter, but East Central fought back with a pair of touchdowns to record the come-from-behind victory over the Boll Weevils in the 2014 season opener, a 38-34 decision on Saturday at Willis "Convoy" Leslie Cotton Boll Stadium.
After East Central (1-0, 1-0 Great American Conference) took the lead with 1:42 remaining, the Weevils (0-1, 0-1 GAC) set up following the kickoff return at their own 33-yard line. UAM went 32 yards in six plays, featuring a 17-yard pitch-and-catch from junior Colton Morrison to junior Trey Taylor and a pass interference call against the Tigers. On the ensuing second down, Colton Morrison's pass into the end zone seemed to have been caught by senior Ivory Washington to put UAM back on top, but the officials ruled the pass had been intercepted, thus giving ECU the ball back at its own 20-yard line with 57 seconds remaining. That spot moved to the 35 after a penalty was assessed to the UAM sideline following the call.
With no UAM timeouts remaining, the Tigers took two knees and sealed the win.
Senior Mike Early put a positive note on a disappointing end result by breaking the UAM single-game record for kickoff return yards with 183. The Denham Springs, Louisiana native became the first player in school history to return two kickoff returns for touchdowns in the same game. He had two 89-yard touchdown returns in Saturday's loss to ECU.
UAM senior Jalen Garmon recovered an ECU fumble on the UAM five-yard line with the Tigers looking to take a lead with 4:02 remaining in the game. However, the Weevils were unable to get anything going on their ensuing drive. After UAM was forced to punt from the back of its own end zone, the Tigers needed only 39 seconds to go 35 yards on two plays to take the lead and finalize the scoring.
Senior running back Rod Smith scored from nine yards out with 9:22 remaining in the game to put UAM on top 34-24. ECU responded with a six-play, 71-yard drive capped with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Spencer Bond to Juwan Dotson to pull the Tigers to within three points with just under eight minutes remaining.
Early's second kickoff return for a touchdown erased ECU's first lead of the game and put the Weevils back on top 27-24 with less than a minute remaining in the third quarter. His first gave UAM a 14-3 lead with just over 10 minutes remaining in the second quarter.
UAM led 14-10 at halftime. The Weevils were outscored 28-20 in the final 30 minutes.
The Tigers outgained UAM 498-311. ECU balanced its attack with 286 passing yards and 212 rushing yards. Nearly all of UAM's yards came through the air. Colton Morrison finished the game 23-for-47 with 289 yards and two interceptions. The Weevils were held to a net of 22 rushing yards in the contest, and were looking at negative rushing yardage at halftime.
Morrison's favorite target in the loss was senior Deadrien Terry with seven catches for 91 yards in his UAM debut. Senior Ian Levine finished with seven catches for 84 yards and Trey Taylor turned in 48 yards on three receptions.
Sophomore kicker Jamie McGee nailed his 18th and 19th career field goals in Saturday's loss, one from 25 yards and the other from 33 yards. Sophomore Brett Courville opened the game's scoring with a four-yard rushing touchdown to cap an 11-play, 76-yard drive at the 9:03 mark of the opening period.
The Weevils begin a two-game road swing next Saturday with a trip to Durant, Oklahoma to face Southeastern Oklahoma State. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. at Paul Laird Field.
