Friday, February 7, 2025

College football: NSU looks to cap season on high note at Houston Christian

by Russell Hedges
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By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Associate Director of External Relations; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU z Photographic Services

HOUSTON – The Northwestern State football team caps its 2024 season against one of its newer Southland Conference rivals.

While the Demons and HCU have met just six times, their 2 p.m. Saturday matchup on ESPN+ features a matchup of first-year head coaches who are quite familiar with one another. 

Northwestern’s Blaine McCorkle and HCU’s Jason Bachtel have a competitive history that dates to their time in the Division III USA South Athletic Conference.

“I have nothing but respect for coach Bachtel and what he’s doing at Houston Christian and what he did at Howard Payne,” McCorkle said. “He was at Howard Payne when I was at Belhaven, and we faced each other head-to-head and had some great games. It was a fun rivalry for both of our teams. Both of us came into those games with really good teams and had great battles. I’m sure we’ll have a great battle again this week.”

The Demons (0-11, 0-6) own a 5-1 mark against the Huskies (4-7, 2-4), who posted their first winning season in program history a year ago.

Bachtel has helped the Huskies maintain that momentum, including Southland Conference wins against McNeese and Nicholls. HCU comes in to Saturday’s game off a wild 41-40 loss at East Texas A&M in which the Lions scored 20 of the final 27 points of the game with the winning points coming with 36 seconds remaining.

“That’s part of the growing process for all of us,” McCorkle said of the uneven season for the Huskies. “They had their first winning season in school history a year ago after a pretty good drought to get it going. In a lot of ways, they’re still in the growing process, too. You have your first winning season and the head coach leaves, and you put your own stamp on it. They’ve had some interesting losses and some really, really good signature wins. They beat Nicholls and McNeese. You beat both of those teams in the same year, you’re doing something right. They are very capable, and we have to be ready.”

Eight Northwestern players were honored ahead of last week’s Senior Day against McNeese, and that same group will compete for the final time as Demons this week.

Of the eight, left tackle Stevie Ballard has started all 11 games this season and his 14 career starts are tied for the most among current Northwestern offensive players. McCorkle praised Ballard as playing his best game of the season against McNeese, putting the Raymond, Mississippi, native in position to cap his career on a high note.

“The main thing to me, as a senior, is showing the young guys how you’re expected to play as an offensive lineman,” Ballard said. “My attempt to lead is by showing great effort on the field. That’s what it takes to win. That’s what coaches want to see. Building confidence in them that anyone can get it done is a huge thing for me.”

In the teams’ most recent matchup, Ballard and his fellow offensive linemen helped Kennieth Lacy collect his first career 100-yard game and gave the Demons their most recent game of more than 500 yards total offense in a 37-10 victory in Houston.

Now Ballard and his seven fellow seniors will try to cap their final season and McCorkle’s first in a positive manner.

“We want to keep getting better each week, even if it’s the last week and we haven’t won a game yet,” Ballard said. “It’s time to get better. We’re definitely going to do everything we can to end on a high note.”

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