Football team gets seventh win with victory over ULM

Wesley Carroll came off the bench to throw three touchdowns and lead the Panthers to a 28-17 victory over the ULM Warhawks, Sat., Nov. 19, in Monroe, La. Carroll, who came in after starter Jake Medlock got hurt on FIU’s second offensive play of the game, completed 16-of-34 passes for 213 yards and three scores.

Fifth-year senior Wes Carroll's experience came in handy against ULM. Photo courtesy Samuel Lewis.

With the win the team improves to 7-4 and 4-3 in the conference. The seven regular-season wins are the most in program history.

T.Y. Hilton led FIU with 76 receiving yards on four catches, including a 58-yard score. Kedrick Rhodes ran for 76 yards, giving him 1,002 for the season and making him the first FIU running back since 2004 to run for more than 1,000 yards. He also caught five passes for a career-best 74 yards.

Defensively for the Panthers, Jonathan Cyprien led the way with nine tackles and one interception, which he returned for a touchdown.

On FIU’s second drive of the game, a 33-yard catch-and-run by Rhodes set the FIU offense up to score, and it did just that as Carroll found Colt Anderson for a 13-yard score. It was Anderson’s first-career touchdown. The score gave the Panthers a 7-0 lead with 5:19 to play in the first quarter.

Near the end of the first quarter, ULM looked to be driving for a score, but the FIU defense buckled down and forced ULM into a fourth-and-eight situation. The Warhawks went for it, but the Panthers were up to the task and forced a turnover-on-downs as time expired in the first.

The Panthers made the score 14-0 with 9:22 to go in the first half when Carroll connected with Glenn Coleman who made a fantastic shoestring catch for the 27-yard score. On the 77-yard drive, Rhodes accounted for 43 yards on three runs. The scoring play came on  second-and-short where Carroll found Coleman on a crossing route. The Louisiana native hauled the ball in inches from the ground and took it in for the score.

On the ensuing kickoff, ULM’s Luther Ambrose returned the ball 98 yards for a touchdown. It was the first kickoff return for touchdown FIU has ever given up.

The Panthers came right back and scored quick when Hilton broke off a 58-yard run-after-catch. The reception, Hilton’s career-best 60^th of the season, gave FIU a 21-7 lead with 8:10 to go in the first half.

FIU made the score 28-7 with just under three minutes to play in the first half when Cyprien stepped in front of a Kolton Browning pass, intercepted it and returned it nine yards for a touchdown.

ULM added a field goal with three seconds left in the half to make the score 28-10 going into the break.

After a quiet third quarter, the fourth quarter began with FIU still up 28-10.

A pass interference call against FIU gave ULM the ball at the two-yard line, and the Warhawks capitalized on a touchdown run by Browning that made the score 28-17 with 9:34 to go in the game.

After an FIU punt, ULM looked poised to cut deeper into the FIU lead as they had the ball inside the FIU 10-yard line. However, Richard Leonard intercepted a pass in the endzone to thwart the threat and keep FIU up 28-17 with 3:53 to go in the game.

The FIU defense forced a turnover-on-downs on ULM’s next possession to ice the game for the Panthers.

Up next for FIU is a trip to Murfreesboro, Tenn., for the regular-season finale against the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders on Saturday, November 26 at 3:30 p.m. (ET).