{"id":418983,"date":"2026-10-05T06:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T06:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/418983\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T06:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T06:06:13","slug":"acu-breaks-out-in-first-half-in-win-over-west-florida-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/418983\/","title":{"rendered":"ACU breaks out in first half in win over West Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

ABILENE, Texas \u2014 Abilene Christian finally broke through for its first home win of the season, doing it in emphatic fashion in its first conference game against West Florida.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats entered the matchup still looking for their first win at home after earlier losses to Stephen F. Austin and Mercer. <\/p>\n

The game also marked the start of conference play for ACU, which came in with a 1-4 record that had been built entirely in nonconference games. <\/p>\n

RELATED | Wildcats fall to Mercer at home to drop to 1-4, but coach says no panic<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Rovaughn<\/p>\n

Rovaughn Banks Jr. runs down the sideline for a touchdown. (KTXS\/Russell Taber)<\/p>\n

West Florida came in as a ranked opponent, listed as the No. 18 team in the FCS.<\/p>\n

After a slow start with neither team producing points on its opening drives, ACU struck first when quarterback Tucker Parks hit JC French-Love on a pass to the outside that turned into a 31-yard touchdown.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats\u2019 defense repeatedly got West Florida off the field early, setting up more scoring chances. <\/p>\n

RELATED | ACU has 5 turnovers in loss to Mercer<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Deonte<\/p>\n

Deonte Dean scores a touchdown. (KTXS\/Russell Taber)<\/p>\n

Running back, Rovaughn Banks Jr. followed with a touchdown on an outside run, his first touchdown of the year, pushing ACU\u2019s lead to 14-0.<\/p>\n

ACU kept adding to the margin as the defense continued to pressure West Florida quarterback Ty\u2019Ray Davis and disrupt the pocket. <\/p>\n

Deonte Dean scored on the ground, and Parks later connected with Jayden York for another touchdown.<\/p>\n

RELATED | ACU earns first win of season, returns home for three-game stint<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Tucker<\/p>\n

Tucker Parks throws a touchdown pass to Jayden York for a touchdown. (KTXS\/Russell Taber)<\/p>\n

ACU led 28-0 at halftime, the first time the Wildcats had shut out an opponent in the first half since the first round of the 2024 FCS playoffs.<\/p>\n

One of the few miscues for ACU came on a punt return when Grant Jones, the Wildcats\u2019 third-string punt returner, muffed the ball and West Florida recovered. <\/p>\n

But the Argonauts did not capitalize, as an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty backed them up, followed by a bad snap and another penalty that left them out of range.<\/p>\n

RELATED | Abilene CFB teams go undefeated in Week 3<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Wildcats<\/p>\n

Wildcats defense tackles the West Florida quarterback. (KTXS\/Russell Taber)<\/p>\n

ACU and West Florida traded touchdowns in the fourth quarter, and the Wildcats closed out a 35-7 win.<\/p>\n

After the game, head coach Keith Patterson praised Parks\u2019 toughness and efficiency.<\/p>\n

\u201cTucker, he’s just got that grit,\u201d Patterson said. \u201cYou see why, he did a better job trying to protect himself [tonight]. And he took a couple of shots anyway. But he was efficient throwing the football. [I’m] proud of him. We just got to continue to do a better job trying to protect him and give him time to push the ball down the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED | ACU Football falls to Stephen F. Austin, ending home game winning streak<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Wildcats defense celebrates a sack. (KTXS\/Russell Taber)<\/p>\n

Parks said he was grateful to be back on the field and credited the team\u2019s chemistry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been blessed to have another opportunity. I’ve been itching to get back on that field,\u201d Parks said. \u201cBeing back out there with the team and building confidence at practice, having good weeks of practice, you know, sticking together like that, creating a brotherhood like that’s really the basis of like a team, that’s the basis of this team. And that’s how we want to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wildcats will host Central Arkansas next week for another home conference matchup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ABILENE, Texas \u2014 Abilene Christian finally broke through for its first home win of the season, doing it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-418983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}