Troy falls in final seconds at Louisiana-Monroe

MONROE, La. — Some Troy players couldn’t watch. Others thought it went through and started to celebrate.

UL-Monroe players got the last hurrah, though, as Sam Glusman’s 56-yard field goal attempt hit the crossbar and fell short, preserving the Warhawks’ 31-30 win over the Trojans. It was the first loss in league play for Troy (5-3, 4-1 Sun Belt) and left UL-Lafayette all alone in first place in the league.

ULM had scored when backup quarterback Trey Revell threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to J.J. McCoy with 34 seconds left, but the 2-point play failed. Jorrick Calvin returned the ball 24 yards to his 49, but an offsides penalty on the kickoff gave Troy the ball at the ULM 46.

Quarterback Levi Brown had to throw two balls away because of ULM’s coverage and he hit Patrick Cherry for a 7-yard gain before coaches called on Glusman to kick the field goal.

Two inches higher, and Troy’s celebrating a win.

“I thought it was going in, but then I saw it die on me,”Glusman said. “I thought I hit it really short, but everyone told me it hit the crossbar. I was already on my knees. I’ve hit 55-60 yards, but I had a breeze with me. This time, it was just dead wind.”

Troy head coach Larry Blakeney decided on kicking rather than throwing a Hail Mary into the end zone from 39 yards out with 5 seconds left.

“We ran it around and round and had a short debate and decided to kick it,” Blakeney said. “He certainly got every bit of that one. That’s just outside the maximum of his range.”

Revell came in because starter Kinsmon Lancaster went down with a sprained knee. He was perfect, hitting all five of his passes for 44 yards, including 4-of-4 for 41 yards on the final drive. The touchdown pass was a slant over the middle to McCoy on third down.

“We called our defense that we thought we had the best chance to stop them and they made a good play,” safety Tavares Williams said. “Right there, the defense didn’t step up to the challenge.”

Troy went up 30-25 with 4:58 left when DuJuan Harris took a shovel pass and scored from 29 yards out. Confusion ensued on the 2-point try, when referees flagged Troy for illegal participation for having too many men on the field when Trojan players were trying to get the spot of the ball moved from the middle to the left hash.

“We’ve got a right to do that and I don’t know why they wouldn’t let us do it,” said Brown, who threw for 221 yards on 23-of-36 passes. “Then to throw a flag on us, that killed us.”

The 2-point play would have put Troy up seven, but Brown’s pass was intercepted. He threw his first pick of the year earlier when the ball was slightly overthrown and tipped by wideout Gerald Tate.

“It was a questionable call, I’ll say,” Brown said. “I told him it hadn’t been spotted and he said, ‘Yes it had been spotted,’ but I said that’s not where we wanted it spotted.

“That’s tough. You have one play to score from the 8-yard line. Windows are going to be tight. I knew it was going to be tough and I had to force it in there.”

The interception on the 2-point play didn’t count on his season totals. Troy was up 17-8 at the half, but ULM dominated time of possession (39:52 to 20:08) and hit 9-of-19 third down conversions.

Troy hit only 3-of-10 third down plays, and while DuJuan Harris ran for 143 yards, including a 45-yard score on fourth down that put Troy up 24-22, the Trojans couldn’t pull it out. Troy was playing without leading receiver Jerrel Jernigan, who injured his knee last week and is hoping to be back for the Nov. 22 game with ULL.

“We were in the red zone many times that we didn’t put the ball in,” center Danny Franks said. “We had chance after chance that we just didn’t take advantage of. That’s a part of us that we need to take care of.”

The Trojans missed three field goals, including the last one, and Brown was forced to take a safety when a miscommunication with starting center Steven Adams resulted in a missed snap. That put ULM up 8-0. Franks came in at center after that series and Adams moved back to right guard, where he had been starting before Franks’ injury Oct. 7.

Troy can still win the Sun Belt, though probably not outright, and go to the New Orleans Bowl, but the Trojans must win their two remaining SBC games with ULL and Arkansas State (Dec. 6).