Mid-major Louisiana-Monroe nearly knocked off one of the big boys Saturday night at Memorial Stadium.
“Yeah, we did dominate the game. Except for a couple of missed opportunities for points : we felt we could have won the game,” tight end Zeek Zacharie said after catching two touchdown passes in the Warhawks’ 21-19 loss to Kansas University.
Sedan native Charlie Weatherbie’s Sun Belt Conference team, which outgained the Jayhawks 428 yards to 351, missed a 43-yard field goal, had a bad snap on a 42-yard try and botched an extra-point kick – points that would have been critical.
“We had our chances,” Weatherbie said. “You never miss an extra point. That kills you right there. It means we have to go for two there.”
The Warhawks were forced to try a two-point conversion following a three-yard TD pass from Kinsmon Lancaster to Zacharie with 3:31 left.
An illegal procedure penalty on the conversion snap pushed the ball from the three to the eight, where QB Lancaster missed Zacharie on a bullet pass in the corner of the end zone.
“It was huge,” Weatherbie said of the penalty pushing back the Warhawks and scrapping the planned call, a quarterback draw.
“Our center tried snapping the ball. It slipped out of his hand. He kind of double-clutched, and it hit him in the butt. We had eight yards to go and felt we needed to throw in that situation.
“I think our quarterback tried to drill it in there. I’m not sure how open it was. He felt he could have got it in there to our tight end,” Weatherbie added.
Lancaster – a sophomore who completed 24 of 41 passes for 377 yards and two TDs and rushed for 30 yards – took the blame for the incompletion on the two-point try.
“It was close,” Lancaster said. “I had to stand back in there and make a better throw, take the hit for the team.”
Zacharie wishes he could have stretched to make the catch.
“I thought I could have made a play. It wasn’t where I expected it,” Zacharie said of the ball. “Our quarterback had a great game. He’s a leader on the field. Without him, we don’t score any points.”
Lancaster would have loved trying the QB draw before the procedure penalty.
“We had a great call down for what they had on defense,” Lancaster said. “I think we would have scored. It’s disappointing, but I don’t think the penalty was the key play of the game. We had plenty of opportunities to make plays. It was one play. Coach tells us there will be adversity in every game. You have to overcome adversity.”
Weatherbie had no complaints about his squad’s play. Three Warhawk receivers each had more than 80 receiving yards.
“We felt they were strong against the run and we’d have to throw the ball,” said Weatherbie, whose mother and sister attended the game, as did a cousin. “I wish we could have run it better (51 yards, 23 carries). It would have given us a better opportunity at the end. I’m proud at how hard the kids fought.”
He said he was impressed with the Jayhawks (2-0), who will travel Friday to Toledo.
“They are a physical Big 12 team,” Weatherbie said. “They will win a lot of games. I told our team today that’s a bowl team. That team will go to a bowl. I really believe that. I believe we will too.”
Weatherbie, whose son, Jonas, played quarterback at KU for both Terry Allen and Mark Mangino, said he also was impressed with the crowd of 45,221.
“I came here many times to see Jonas play. I came here as a kid being recruited by Kansas when David Jaynes was quarterback. It’s by far the best crowd I’ve seen at a Kansas football game,” Weatherbie said.
