Carneiro’s 50-yard field goal lifts Tops into CUSA title game

Published 5:55 am Sunday, December 1, 2024

by Jeff Nations

Western Kentucky redshirt sophomore kicker Lucas Carneiro knew it from the moment he connected with the football Saturday night at Houchens-Smith Stadium.

That ball had 50 yards to travel in a straight arc, more or less, to reach the uprights and sail on through. Carneiro felt an unshakable certainty it was going to happen before anybody.

“That one, as soon as I hit it, I was like that one’s going in,” Carneiro said. “I think I can just feel it off my foot. Really good contact and the ball got up there and I was like, ‘That’s it.’ ”

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Carneiro’s 50-yard kick, his fourth field goal of the night, split the uprights with three seconds to go to put WKU ahead for good for a 19-17 win against Jacksonville State. The victory sends the Hilltoppers to the Conference USA championship game Friday for the first time since 2021 – it will be a rematch against Jax State, this time on their home field in Jacksonville, Alabama.

Carneiro, who set the program record of consecutive made field goals with his first 50-yarder of the night in the second quarter, has now made 15 straight field goals, including a perfect 5-for-5 on attempts of 50 yards or more. The Cornelius, North Carolina, native is 15-of-16 on field goals this year and a perfect 39-of-39 on point-after attempts.

“He is in my eyes the best kicker in college football,” WKU coach Tyson Helton said of Carneiro. “He is clutch, he is clutch. When you have a guy out there that runs out there, whether he makes the kick or not, just the comfort level you have going ‘If anybody’s going to make it, it’s going to be this guy.’ ”

WKU (8-4 overall, 6-2 CUSA) needed help to even get this far – Sam Houston’s 20-18 win against Liberty on Friday night gave the Tops a chance to earn a spot in the CUSA championship with a win against front-running Jacksonville State – a Liberty win would have deprived WKU of that chance.

“Everybody was watching the game in the facility and still going over our stuff for this game that we just played,” WKU senior defensive back Devonte’ Mathews said. “But watching that game and Sam Houston winning, that gave everybody a lot of hope to just keep going and just play hard for this game to give ourselves a chance to play in the conference championship.”

The Tops got going early, with redshirt sophomore quarterback Caden Veltkamp finding running back Elijah Young on a screen behind the defensive front for a 21-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter.

Jax State (8-4, 7-1 CUSA) got a 46-yard field goal from Garrison Rippa later in the first, then grabbed its first lead on a Tre Stewart 8-yard touchdown run with 3:42 left in the first half.

The Tops answered with Carneiro, who punched through a 50-yard field goal with just 41 seconds left in the half to knot the score at 10 heading into halftime.

Helton said he determined early on to make the most of Carneiro’s accurate kicking because of the way the WKU defense was holding up against the Gamecocks’ high-scoring offense – Saturday’s defensive struggle put points at a premium.

So when the Tops drove down deep into the red zone and faced a fourth-and goal from the 3, Helton opted for the points – Carneiro delivered a 21-yard field goal to put his team ahead 13-10 with 7:31 left in the third. Then in the fourth, Carneiro got the call again and knocked through a 35-yard field goal to push the lead to 16-10 with 11:37 to play.

Jax State wasn’t finished, even with starting quarterback Tyler Huff sidelined in the third quarter with an injury. Backup QB Logan Smothers struck with a 47-yard completion to Michael Pettway, then finished off the drive with a 17-yard touchdown run to put the Gamecocks back ahead 17-16 with 9:44 to go.

Jacksonville State then forced a punt, and WKU’s defense matched up. The Gamecocks held again, and the Hilltoppers did the same to get the ball back to the offense with 1:53 to play when redshirt senior Sebastian Benjamin chased down Smothers from behind to force a fourth-and-5.

“That’s why we play defense,” said WKU redshirt junior safety Demarko Williams, who tallied a first-quarter interception to set up the Tops’ lone touchdown. “The team’s going to go where we take them, so we live up to those moments.”

With less than two minutes to play, the Tops needed to go 76 yards. Veltkamp (28-of-47 passing for 301 yards, 1 TD) connected on back-to-back short passes to K.D. Hutchinson for a first down, then found Young on a 14-yard screen pass to the 50. Then it was back to Hutchinson for a 13-yard completion, then a 5-yarder to Kisean Johnson that the senior caught at his shoe tops for a first down. One more completion to Hutchinson put the Tops at the Jax State 32, then Veltkamp passed out of bounds to stop the clock with seven seconds to set up Carneiro.

“That’s a testament to K.D. and who he is,” Veltkamp said. “I don’t know if he had a catch before that in the game. But he’s always going to be there and be ready to go, and he’s going to answer the call when it’s his turn. He made some really big catches. Izzy (Young) made a good play on the check-down I threw him, Kisean made a heckuva grab – caught it two inches off the ground. They were playing big zone on that last drive so we were calling a lot of big-zone plays, and K.D. was finding the soft spot and Izzy found a soft spot.

“Then across the 50 they started playing a little more man. Kisean won on his stop route and then K.D. won really on both his out routes. The second one I was really just trying to throw away because I knew when we cross the 45, we’re in his range so I wasn’t trying to have something bad happen.”

Helton believed only something good was about to happen when he sent Carneiro out one last time.

“That last drive offensively, I was like if I can just get it somewhere around the 35 I know Lucas will get it done,” Helton said. “Our long snapper (Rex Robich), Lucas and our holder (Cole Maynard) … I mean, they are the best of the best. They are fantastic. I had a lot of confidence, felt so good about them going out there and making that kick. And they work so hard on that and we’ve been in that scenario so much in practice and over and over again, they do a fantastic job of making those. We’ll probably be in that same situation again next week, so hopefully we’ll make it again next week.”

The rematch is set for 6 p.m. Friday at AmFirst Stadium in Jacksonville, Alabama. CBSSN will provide the telecast. WKU has played in the CUSA championship three times, winning back-to-back titles in 2015-16 and losing in 2021.

“We’re very happy to be able to represent WKU in the Conference USA championship game,” Helton said. “What a great way to win – it definitely was not easy. There was a lot of adversity and a lot of things that make you want to pull your hair out, to be quite honest with you. But we overcame it and that’s what good teams do. Our guys fought and battled and I’m very, very proud of them for what they did. The work is not done. We’ve got to now go find a way to win this championship. I know we’re excited to go do that.”

WKU outgained the Gamecocks 426-328 in total offense.

“I think we found something in the second half,” Veltkamp said. “We started moving the ball a little better. We’ve got to finish drives. We didn’t finish drives in the second half, but playing them once now we kind of understand. I guess we felt them out now. We’re going to have to come out next week swinging because they’re going to have a good game plan.”

Helton, in his sixth year, will be looking for his first CUSA championship game win as a head coach after falling short in 2021 against UTSA. He thinks this group of Hilltoppers can get it done.

“I told the guys this here the other night – this is the best group I’ve ever coached since I’ve been here,” Helton said. “And I love every team I’ve ever had. But this team is a bunch of honorable men and they’re a bunch of competitive men. They’re the definition of team. They get the big picture, the ups and the downs, they understand. They knew what they were capable of, they knew it was going to probably be a game like this. I just have so much respect for them.”

About Jeff Nations

Sports Editor, Bowling Green Daily News

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