Texas State completes 4th-quarter comeback to dump Louisiana-Monroe 21-20

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas State has done something it hasn't done in nearly a decade on Saturday — win five games in a season.

The Bobcats scratched their way back from a 20-9 fourth-quarter deficit to beat Louisiana-Monroe 21-20 for the program's fifth win of the season. The last time Texas State reached five wins was in 2014, and they've got five more games left to add to the win column.

"It was huge. I talked about it all week. This is the dang Super Bowl," Bobcats head coach GJ Kinne said. "In a game like that it doesn't matter how you win as long as you win, so I was really proud of them."

Bobcats' quarterback TJ Finley hit wideout Joey Hobert with a 22-yard pass for the go-ahead score with 0:41 left in the game. Hobert finished the game with 10 catches for 110 yards and two touchdowns, and both scores were in the final 4:16 of the ballgame. It was Hobert's third consecutive 100-yard receiving game, and he's the first player in the program's FBS history to do that.

Texas State mounted the comeback after ULM's Ja'Terious Evans picked Finley off and returned it 76 yards for a touchdown with 8:57 left in the game. Finley and the Bobcats marched down the field in 4:04 to get within a touchdown, capping a 13-play, 75-yard drive with an 11-yard pass to Hobert. The two-point conversion failed and the Bobcats trailed 20-15.

The Bobcats then forced ULM into a three-and-out, and following the Warhawks' punt, took over at their own 24-yard line. On 1st-and-10 from the 22-yard line, Finley hit Hobert just in front of the goal line with a pass, and with no one around him, Hobert sauntered into the end zone with the go-ahead score.

The Warhawks went on a frantic final drive and advanced the ball to the Bobcats' 40-yard line, but an offensive pass interference call with 0:10 left derailed it.

Texas State kicker Mason Shipley made three field goals from 29, 34 and 47 yards in the first half. The last field goal gave the Bobcats a 9-7 lead with 7:06 left in the first half.

The Bobcats stuffed the Warhawks at the goal line in the second quarter, and Kinne said the stand was "unbelievable."

"Our defense came to play," he said. "I think it says a lot about you when they tried to draw us offsides on fourth down and that was their plan on fourth and inches. That was a good feeling."

Texas State (5-2, 2-1 Sun Belt Conference) has a bye week next week and will host Troy at 2 p.m., Oct. 28.