Red Wolves hold on to top Trojans

Troy falls 50-43 to Arkansas State in controversial finish

sports@theeveningtimes.com

It was a tale of two perspectives.

For the Arkansas State University Red Wolves, they put up 50 points, including a fourth-quarter safety and a late field goal to notch a valuable Sun Belt Conference win to open conference play.

Troy fans didn’t quite see it that way.

In his recap of the game, Troy football beat writer Creg Stephensen wrote it up as “Troy lost 50-43 to Arkansas State in one of the most gut-wrenching ways imaginable Saturday night, with the clock running out and the Trojans helpless to stop it.”

Trojans quarterback Kaleb Barker completed a 13yard pass to DK Billingsley at the Arkansas State 8 with 9 seconds remaining, apparently setting up Troy for one last shot to tie the game. However, Trojans offensive lineman Austin Stidham was injured and unable to get off the field, resulting in a 10-second runoff and the end of the game because Troy had no timeouts remaining.

Troy coach Chip Lindsey said the timing of the play was unfortunate.

“I thought we had outside of 10 seconds… 13, maybe 12, but that was the decision they made,” Lindsey said. “You can’t do anything about that, it’s just the way it fell for us.

Hopefully, they got it right, which I’m sure they did.”

It was the second shootout loss in three games for Troy, which fell 47-43 to Southern Miss two weeks ago. On Saturday, the Trojans (2-2 overall, 0-1 Sun Belt Conference) totaled 510 yards of offense, but gave up 558.

Kaleb Barker threw for 367 yards and four touchdowns in a losing effort for Troy, with Kaylon Geiger and Reggie Todd both breaking the 100-yard mark. Billingsley added 103 yards rushing.

Arkansas State (3-2, 1-0) got 440 yards and four touchdowns passing from first-time starting quarterback Layne Hatcher, an Alabama transfer. Omar Bayless caught 10 passes for 213 yards and a touchdown, while Jonathan Adams added 105 yards and a score and Kirk Merritt had 104 yards and 2 TDs.

The teams were tied 31-31 at halftime, before Arkansas State jumped ahead 45-38 after three. Barker hit Geiger on a 9-yard touchdown pass with 14:48 left in the game, but Barker was stopped short on a 2-point conversion attempt and the Red Wolves held a two-point lead.

After Troy’s Will Sunderland intercepted the ball at the 1, Billingsley was stopped in the end zone for a safety to put Arkansas State up 47-38 with 8:41 to play. Following the free kick, Blake Grupe added a 19-yard field goal to give the Red Wolves a 7-point lead with 5:12 remaining.

The two teams then swapped interceptions — B.J. Edmonds for Arkansas State and Carlton Martial for Troy, giving the ball to the Trojans on their 46 with 2:44 to play. Barker converted a fourth-and-5 with a 20-yard run at one point, but the late injury killed a chance for the Trojans to tie the game.

Arkansas State remains on the road this week as it travels to Atlanta to face Georgia State on Saturday in a 2:30 p.m. Sun Belt Conference game that will appear on ESPN+. Every Red Wolves football game can be heard live on 107.9 FM in the Northeast Arkansas area. The live radio broadcast can also be accessed on the official A-State Athletics web site (AStateRedWolves.com) and the A-State Athletics app.

Arkansas State enters Saturday’s game with a 3-2 overall record and 1-0 mark in Sun Belt play after knocking off Troy 50-43 last week in its league opener. Georgia State is coming off an open week, most recently falling 37-34 in overtime at Texas State on Sept. 21. The Panthers hold a 2-2 overall record, including a season-opening win at Tennessee, and stand 0-1 in Sun Belt action. This year matches the earliest meeting ever in Sun Belt play between the Red Wolves and Panthers as they also faced each other in A-State’s second conference game of the 2014 season.