NATCHITOCHES – A week after the second-best comeback in school history produced a Homecoming win, the Northwestern State football team almost bettered it Saturday at Abilene Christian.

The Demons rallied from 18 down after halftime two Saturdays ago to overcome Houston Baptist 31-28. After falling behind 34-14 in the third quarter at ACU, the Demons came up a two-point conversion shy of forcing overtime in a 49-47 Southland Conference defeat.

First-year NSU coach Brad Laird loves the way his team has battled in its comebacks the last two weeks. But the Demons (3-6 overall, 2-5 in the Southland) haven't been consistent throughout a game in any of their league outings.

"We've done a great job fighting back, but our focus is to be consistent and don't get in those lulls where we fall behind," he said. "We were inconsistent at the same time in all three phases and that's what got us in that hole.

"It's painful because the things we're doing to come back, we've got to be able to do to avoid the 18-point deficit, the 20-point deficit. You know we can do it, and we're not, coaches and players, during the time we've been falling behind.

"Knowing you had opportunities you didn't take advantage of is painful, but we didn't quit. This team is going to battle for 60 minutes," he said.

NSU wraps up the season with a pair of rivalry games, Saturday night at home against McNeese and Thursday, Nov. 15 at Stephen F. Austin.

Entertaining the Cowboys in the home finale is a challenge Laird embraces.

A team we battle year in and year out, that you look forward to playing from the day the schedule comes out," he said. "An in-state matchup with a great rival coming to Turpin Stadium for our last home game, when we will honor our seniors, there's plenty to get the juices flowing."

The ACU game, the highest-scoring defeat in school history, provided some record book-altering performances by junior receiver Jazz Ferguson and junior quarterback Shelton Eppler.

Ferguson snagged touchdown passes of 25, 33 and 13 yards to up his season TD catch total to 11, breaking the 50-year-old Demon single-season mark of 10 in 1968 by Al Phillips. It was also a record-tying single-game haul, matching five other players, but last done 20 years ago in NSU's first-round 48-28 FCS playoff win at home over Illinois State by Chris Pritchett.

His 82 receiving yards gave him 934 this season, only 11 away from topping the NSU-best 944 in 2001 in 12 games by Nathan Black. With 52 receptions, he's equaled Black's 2001 catch total that is fourth on the Demon record book, and is three away from joining Ed Eagan as the only NSU receiver with 55 or more catches in a season. Eagan has the record with 73 as a junior and had 58 in his senior season.

Eppler, who played for the first time in three weeks after missing two contests with a concussion, tied his single-game NSU record with six touchdown passes, the total he had in a 49-48 win Sept. 15 at Lamar.

That gave him 20 for the season, third-best in school history and two short of second all-time. Zach Adkins had the top two totals, 21 in 2013 and 28 in 2014.

Eppler's 367 total yards gave him the fifth 2,000-yard passing season by a Demon, with 2,046 yards, an average of 292.3 per game. Adkins' 2,821 in 2014 is the NSU record.

It was the third time in seven games Eppler has posted a school top-10 single-game pass yardage total. He had a record 474 at Lamar and threw for 351 against Sam Houston State. His total at ACU, which included 268 after halftime on 18 of 31 accuracy, was third-best by an NSU passer, topped only by his total and Clay Holgorsen's 381 last year at McNeese.

Eppler's 153 completions is seventh on the Demons' single-season list while 250 attempts is 10^th.