Football: Anatomy of a comeback – 3:00 – 2:00 – 1:00 – game over! 11/7/11

Tim Buckley, Nov. 7, 2011

A look at how UL rallied from 11 points down Saturday with just more than two minutes remaining to beat UL Monroe 36-35 and finish 5-0 at Cajun Field in 2011:

3:08 left:

With UL down 35-24, Brad McGuire returns Justin Manton’s short kick 13 yards to the Ragin’ Cajun 43-yard line, and a personal foul on Monroe’s Cordero Smith adds another nine yards to the Warhawk 38.

Blaine Gautier finds tight end Ladarius Green on the left side for 2 yards, marking Green’s 13th catch of the game.

"A lot of it was coming back the other way — they’re off-balance, and I’m wide open," Green said.

Less than 3:00 to go:

After an incompletion, Gautier hits Harry Peoples over the middle for 23 yards.

One incompletion and one Monroe timeout later, Gautier connects with Peoples again over the middle, this time for 7 yards to the Warhawk 16.

2:05 remaining:

Gautier finds Darryl Surgent on the right side for a 16-yard touchdown, the fourth thrown by Gautier

"Whenever it comes down to it, and the offense has the ball, and the it’s the fourth quarter, or whatever it is," Gautier said, "we definitely know that we’ve got to put this into our hands and come out with this win — and we did that."

UL goes for 2 points, but Gautier’s pass falls incomplete, leaving it 35-30 Warhawks.

Brett Baer’s onsides kick hits off McGuire and into the hands of Ladarius Green, giving the Cajuns the ball at Monroe’s 39.

"Those guys did an awesome job of rushing the ball," Baer said.

A screen pass from Gautier to Rob Walker on the left side nets 12 yards.

Less than 2:00 left:

Gautier finds Javone Lawson on the left side for 24 yards, the last of Gautier’s 355 on the da

1:06 to go

Alonzo Harris runs 3 yards up the middle for a touchdown, putting UL up 36-35.

The Cajuns again go for 2, but — after an interference call on a Gautier incompletion gives UL one more shot — Harris is stopped short.

Carlos Alvarez’s kickoff sails 57 yards to the Monroe 13 and is returned 15 yards to the 28 by Luther Ambrose.

"That last kick was his best kick of the game," Cajuns coach Mark Hudspeth said of Alvarez, a freshman playing his first collegiate game. "He put it in the corner, where I was really needing him to put it all night."

Trying to set up a game-winning field goal, Kolton Browning passes to Ambrose for 6 yards on the left side. Le’Marcus Gibson makes the tackle.

Less than 1:00 remaining

Browning passes to Brent Leonard for 20 yards on the left side. Lionel Stokes takes down Leonard.

Browning scrambles left and goes out of bounds before gaining a yard.

After a Browning incompletion, he finds Leonard in the left flat — but Stokes and Bill Bentley make the stop before Leonard gains anything.

As time expires:

On 4th-and-10 from the Cajun 46, Browning runs right for 15 to the 31. But he goes out of bounds after the clock hit zero, denying Monroe what would have been a 48-yard field goal attempt for the win.

"It came down to making some plays at the end," Warhawks coach Todd Berry said. "The plays were there; we didn’t make them, and that’s the bottom line."

— Tim Buckley

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