A-State Knocks ULM out of First Place, 45-23

The Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks played its first full game without quarterback Kolton Browning.  But, like last week wheh Louisiana rolled up more than 600 yards in offense, last night's game confirmed Browning does not play defense.

The Red Wolves amassed 534 yards in offense and ULM gave up 200 yards rushing for the second straight week as Arkansas State handed the Warhawks their second conference loss, 45-24 at Liberty Bank Stadium in Jonesboro, AR.

The announced crowd of 30,243 was the second largest in stadium history.

Senior Cody Wells, filling in for Browning, performed admirably, completing 37-53 passes for 357 yards and two touchdowns.  He was intercepted once.  Brett Leonard caught 14 of those passes for 134 yards.

But ULM struggled to find any balance in its offense as they managed only 76 yards on 27 carries on the ground.

Meanwhile, senior quarterback Ryan Aplin was on target all night, completing 26-34 passes for 334 yards and two touchdowns.  J. D. McKissic was on the receiving end 12 times for 102 yards.

David Oku led the Red Wolves on the ground, gaining 132 yards on 22 carries and three scores as Arkansas State pulled away in the third quarter, outscoring ULM 21-7 after taking a ten point lead, 17-10 at halftime.

Arkansas State had scoring drives of  75, 87 70, 64 and 82 yards.  The long touchdown drives continued a trend for the ULM defense, who gave up six touchdown drives of 77 yards or more in their loss to Louisiana.

Arkansas State (7-3, 5-1) remained in a tie with Middle Tennessee for first place in the Sun Belt.  The two teams meet in Jonesboro on Dec. 1.

ULM (6-4, 4-2) will host North Texas a week from Saturday.