'Roo Football Completes Comeback Win at SAGU

WAXAHACHIE, Texas - The Austin College football team found itself trailing by double-digits twice, but the 'Roos used a second half comeback and a late touchdown pass from Colt Collins to Adonis Martin to come away with a 27-26 victory on Saturday against Southwestern Assemblies of God University. The 'Roos are now 1-1 overall on the year.

Collins threw for 236 yards and a pair of touchdowns to lead the 'Roo offense, as Austin College was bottled up in the rushing attack with just 28 yards on the ground. The game was a defensive struggle early on, with Southwestern Assemblies finally getting on the board with about 12 minutes remaining in the opening half. The point after attempt missed, making it a 6-0 game. The 'Roos responded, with a 35-yard pass from Collins to Martin setting up a five-yard touchdown run from Evan Powell to put Austin College ahead 7-6 three minutes later.

The Lions scored 13 unanswered to grab their first double-figure lead of the game at 19-7, but Austin College got the ball back with under a minute remaining in the half and Collins found Hagen Vrazel in the back of the endzone from 10-yards out for a touchdown to make it 19-14 just before time expired.

SAGU pushed the lead back to 12 with a 63-yard touchdown pass from Brylen Watson to Bryant Dotson early in the third, but it would be the defense for Austin College that started to shift the momentum when Aal Gray scooped up a fumble and returned it 35 yards for the score to make it 26-21 heading into the fourth. A missed field goal by the Lions set up what would turn out to be the game-winning drive by Collins and the Austin College offense, and a 67-yard connection to Maika Brinkerhoff gave Austin College the ball at the SAGU 13-yard line, and on the very next play Collins delivered a scoring strike to Martin at the front corner of the endzone and the senior receiver just managed to keep his feet inbounds to make it a 27-26 game after the 2-point conversion failed.

Maika Brinkerhoff finished with three catches for 95 yards, while Martin had three receptions for 68 yards and Kai Brinkerhoff hauled in three passes for 53 yards in the win. Keegan Nichols led Austin College defensively with 13 stops, including 3.5 tackles-for-loss and a sack. Rick Jessie had nine tackles, and Paul Mpunga and Drake Sanders each had eight.