NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State is clearly confident playing uphill, and coach Jay Thomas really likes it.
 
His Demon football team overcame deficits of 14 points in the second quarter and six points midway through the fourth quarter to prevail 31-27 over No. 24-ranked Sam Houston State Saturday afternoon at Turpin Stadium.  NSU (4-3 overall, 2-1 in the Southland) beat a Bearkats program that has been in the last three FCS playoff fields while piling up 482 yards on 86 plays, and holding the visitors to 97 yards after halftime, as the Demons won for the second straight week and fourth time in their last five outings.
 
It was reminiscent of a Sept. 20 victory at Louisiana Tech, where NSU overcame four 10-point deficits, the last with 8:35 remaining, to win 30-27.
 
"We are a very resilient team, probably the most resilient group I've been around," said Thomas, whose college coaching career began as a graduate assistant for LSU's 1988 Southeastern Conference championship team. "These guys find ways to get it done.
 
"Down 21-7, instead of either the offense or defense throwing each other the shovel to dig the hole even deeper, they threw each other a rope, and found a way to climb out," he said. "I didn't see a coach, a player, out of character. Nobody blinked. Didn't bat an eye about it. We kept going about our business, executing and competing."
 
The Bearkats moved up 14-7 on two long Keshawn Hill touchdown runs (66, 74 yards) in the first quarter, the two longest runs of the year allowed by the Purple Swarm defense. Sam Houston added an 89-yard drive on 12 plays for Hill's third TD and a 21-7 lead 10:46 before halftime, and had 263 yards on 28 snaps at that point.
 
"Defensively we hung on until halftime. You have to give our guys a lot of credit," said Thomas. "We made adjustments,  started playing a lot better in the third quarter, really good in fact, and coming down the stretch we made plays to help us win the game."
 
While the Purple Swarm defense made a stand, the Demons scored on drives of 92 and 57 yards late in the second quarter to knot the score.
 
"The offense did a great job getting us back to 21-21, and making the plays down the stretch," said Thomas. "The offensive line played really well. Austin Douglas played one of his best games at center. Pace Murphy played very well at left tackle. Korliss Johnson, especially for a true freshman, continues to do a good job starting at left guard. Luke Burleson held his own at right guard and Terrance Boyd, in his first full game back and playing right tackle, not his natural position, did what we hoped he would."
 
NSU made its winning surge in the final eight minutes, sparked when Ed Eagan danced 33 yards on a kickoff return into Bearkats' territory. The Demons went up 28-27 on Chris Moore's extra point after Zach Adkins' fourth TD pass, a 20-yarder to running back De'Mard Llorens with 3:56 left.
 
"I like our offense where it is right now. We're playing a physical brand of football. Sam Houston is not out of place very often, which makes it difficult to move the ball. You have to move people and we met the challenge and made that happen. There are a lot of guys involved moving the ball and that's the way we like it," said Thomas.
 
Eagan's runback was part of a crucial advantage in special teams, said Thomas.
 
"Chris, making the clutch field goal (a 30-yarder with 1:48 remaining) once again, like we knew he would in that situation," he said. "We competed very well in special teams against a team that does a great job in that phase. We got nice returns for field position, Andy Wickman punted it very well and our kickoffs and we did a great job with kickoffs. We have things to improve but we more than held our own there."
 
Almost lost in the excitement of the fourth-quarter drama was one of the more spectacular plays of the season. NSU's first touchdown was a 12-yard connection between Adkins and Eagan, with Adkins scrambling on third down and tossing the ball forward like an option pitch, and Eagan catching it on the move outside the five and leaping over a defender for the goalline, stretching the ball just across for the score.
 
"Zach had a Tony Romo-type play out there with the underhand flip. That's his game. He finds a way to get it done. Ed gave us a fantastic effort to get the ball across the goalline," said Thomas.
 
It was one of 10 third-down conversions in 18 tries by NSU, while Sam Houston went just 4 of 12 against the Purple Swarm defense.
 
"You can win when you are operating on third down. We won it on both sides of the ball and that gave us a critical advantage," said Thomas.
 
The first win since 2010 over the Bearkats keeps NSU in the thick of the Southland championship picture heading into a visit to Central Arkansas Saturday night at 6. The Bears are 3-1 in the league after a hard-fought defeat at unbeaten Southeastern Louisiana last week.
 
"Beating Sam Houston was a really, really nice win over a really, really good, talented, well-coached football team, and now we have the next big challenge with five games left in the conference race," said Thomas. "Here we go with another analogy – it's like running the open quarter, coming around that last turn and everybody's about to hit the stretch run. The ones who have juice left will kick it in. We've put ourselves in the thick of the race, and now we have to compete and find a way at UCA."
 
The Demons had a team meeting and light Sunday night workout. They will get their usual Monday off as coaches put together the game plan for the Bears (4-4 overall, 3-1 in the Southland).