Published: November 03, 2009 10:38 am      

College Football: Bobcats clamp down on No. 11 SFA

San Marcos — No one expected Texas State to hold Stephen F. Austin scoreless for 34 minutes Saturday afternoon.

Those same people probably wouldn’t have penciled the Bobcats in for a win if Texas State’s offense only scored 28 points.

Yet, behind an inspired performance by bandit end Travis Houston and the rest of the Bobcat defense, Texas State posted it biggest win of the season. The Bobcats showed they still have some fight left, taking down the No. 11 Lumberjacks, 28-7.

“The key to stopping any passing game is getting pressure on the quarterback,” Texas State head coach Brad Wright said. “It’s hard for a guy to throw it when he’s laying on his back.

“Our front four did a great job of getting pressure on him. We only blitzed a handful of times and it was those four guys getting pressure on him.”

Wright made a point of talking to each defensive lineman during the week at practice to let them know just how important their performance would be.

“I told them basically ‘The game is in your hands,’” Wright said. “Today, honestly, it looks like they understood that.”

Houston listened to every word Wright said at practice and soaked it in. The senior bandit end hadn’t played particularly well so far in 2009 and needed a breakthrough performance.

“He’s a senior and he’s a captain, so he better start making some plays,” Wright said. “That’s what he did. You’d like to think the guys that everyone looks up to is going to step up and make plays. Travis was big for us today.”

Houston wasn’t just big — he was everywhere for the Bobcats.

He had three quarterback hurries in the first half and finished the game with four. Houston also picked Moses off late in the third quarter which led to Texas State taking the lead for good at 14-7.

Each hit Houston and the defensive line laid on Moses took a toll on the junior quarterback. The Bobcats hurried Moses eight times, picked him twice and sent him limping to the sideline in the fourth quarter.

“When you rattle somebody like that, they don’t want to get hit. He’ll slide every time he’s about to get tackled,” Houston said. “When you do something like that, he’s not going to be ready to look for that third or fourth checkdown. He’s going to throw it out of bounds and make a bad pass.”

While Moses couldn’t part Texas State’s defense, Bobcat quarterback Bradley George picked apart the Lumberjacks.

George broke his own school record with 31 completions and threw for 324 yards. He was never pressured by the SFA defensive line and tossed four touchdown passes.

“They only got me one time, but I probably held the ball for too long,” George said. “We knew coming into the game we’d have to take the short stuff and it worked.”

George rarely aired it out longer than 15 yards and when he did, the passes went for touchdowns. He found Mishak Rivas on a 32-yard strike late in the fourth quarter and then fired a 17-yard bullet to Da’Marcus Griggs.

Griggs’ touchdown sealed the win and then Houston provided the stamp. The senior bandit end sprinted past SFA’s offensive line and laid out Lumberjack backup quarterback Dalton Williams.

Houston celebrated the hit with his teammates, pointed to his family in the stands and took his place back on the line for the next play. It was a workman-like attitude for Houston and the rest of the Bobcats Saturday afternoon.

“It’s not like we’ve been holding back or anything like that, we just came out to play and things fell how they did,” Houston said.

Wright echoed the sentiments, but went one step further.

“We’re in a business of ‘What have you done for us lately,’ and that’s what we’ve done,” Wright said. “We’ve worked hard as a team to get better, but as of 2:30 p.m. tomorrow, it doesn’t mean anything. We have to get ready to play another one.”

Texas State travels to Central Arkansas next Saturday to play the Bears.

Bobcat Notes — Marcus Clark, Joplo Bartu and Joe Bell combined for 26.5 tackles Saturday afternoon against SFA ... Bell had five solo stops to go along with a forced fumble ... Matt Harris picked off Moses in the second quarter after heavy pressure by the Bobcats’ defensive line ... Griggs reeled in nine catches for 91 yards, while Rivas had six for 85 yards.