The Wildcats traveled to Houston for their opening conference matchup with the Huskies and won 38-13 behind a 335-yard rushing effort.
ACU looked to be in for a long game as HBU sophomore quarterback Bailey Zappe found senior wide receiver David Racine for an 80-yard touchdown on the second play of the game.
Junior transfer running back Billy McCrary responded quickly, however, as he caught a five-yard touchdown pass from redshirt sophomore quarterback Luke Anthony on their first offensive drive to take a 7-6 lead.
McCrary would then come back in the second quarter with a five-yard run for a touchdown, making him the only player with multiple trips to the end zone on the night.
After a relatively quiet first half, it was all Wildcats in the second half. ACU came right out of the gate with a 67-yard touchdown pass from Anthony to junior wide receiver Chase Cokley extending their lead to 21-6.
Senior wide receiver Kalin Sadler grabbed his first touchdown of the season in the third quarter, and freshman running back Tyrese White capped off the Wildcats scoring with a 55-yard run for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
HBU freshman running back Myles Lewis scored the final touchdown of the night on an eight-yard run to conclude the game at 38-13 in favor of ACU.
Head coach Adam Dorrel said he was happy to see his team get a victory on the road.
“I think it’s huge for a lot of reasons, we as a football program haven’t had a lot of success on the road in the last four or five years,” Dorrel said. “We’re kind of front-loaded on road games early in the year, so I thought tonight was big for our confidence.”
Dorrel displayed a strong rushing performance from three different running backs during the game. Redshirt junior Tracy James carried a big load for the team with 125 yards in 19 attempts. White’s 55-yard touchdown run highlighted a 118-yard performance on only six attempts in the game. Finally, with McCrary’s two touchdown’s, he also added 71 rushing yards on the night.
Anthony ended his evening with 247 yards and three touchdowns. The Wildcats combined 259 passing yards and 335 rushing yards for a productive total of 594.
Defensively, junior linebacker Jeremiah Chambers, a name that’s been called many times this season, remains the top tackler for his team as he came away with eight total tackles. He also earned two tackles for a loss, giving him five on the season, and one sack, making it two total for the year.
Overall, the defense held the Huskies to only 97 rushing yards in the game and gave up 353 total.
Chambers said his team adapted to the HBU offense quickly.
“It played out really well,” Chambers said. “We had the defense come out and stop the run early and we had one mixup at the beginning with a long touchdown, but other than that, we stopped the run really well and they didn’t do much.”
ACU starts out conference 1-0 after the win, while HBU slips to 0-2.
The Wildcats will hit the road again next week to face Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches. Gametime is scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday.
