Sam Houston survives late scare, beats Monmouth 21-15

<p>HUNTSVILLE, Texas &mdash; Isaiah Downes intercepted a fourth-down pass in the end zone with less than a minute on the clock and Sam Houston State escaped the opening round of the FCS playoffs with a 21-15 win over a rallying Monmouth on Saturday.</p>
<p>The fourth-ranked and No. 2-seeded Bearkats, improved to 14-0 in FCS Playoff games at Bowers Stadium. They will host the winner of the Eastern Washington at North Dakota State game.</p>
<p>Ramo Jefferson gained 95 yards on nine carries for Sam Houston State (7-0) with touchdown runs of 56 and 3 yards. On his second touchdown, Jefferson was hit at the line of scrimmage on third-and-goal, but he stayed upright and dragged a knot of defenders three yards across the goal line early in the third quarter.</p>
<p>The TD gave Sam Houston a 21-0 lead and the Bearkats seemed poised to win in a blowout.</p>
<p>Tony Muskett and the Monmouth offense — bottled up throughout the first half with three sacks, 10 tackles for loss and an interception — switched to a variety of screen passes to score 15 points in the fourth quarter on back-to-back drives of 90 and 86 yards.</p>
<p>The 11th-ranked Hawks (3-1), helped by consecutive pass interference penalties, were driving a third time and reached first-and-goal from the 9 with just over two minutes left.</p>
<p>Muskett’s fourth-down, all-or-nothing pass to back of the end zone was picked off by Downes and the Bearkats ran out the remaining 48 seconds.</p>
<p>Muskett competed 29 of 46 passes for 297 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. Eric Schmid was 12-for-24 passing for 133 yards and a score for the Bearkats.</p>
<p>Monmouth rolled up 398 yards of offense to Sam Houston’s 257, but were hampered by six sacks for a loss of 32 yards. The Bearkats made 15 tackles behind the line of scrimmage for a loss of 61 yards.</p>
<p>Linebacker Markel Perry led the Sam Houston defense with eight tackles, four tackles-for-loss and three sacks.</p>
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