Troy Halts Mean Green's Conference Winning Streak

ntsumgspe · October 5, 2005

DENTON (10/4/05) – North Texas’ fourth-quarter rally fell short as the Mean Green’s 26-game conference streak came to an end in a 13-10 loss to Troy on Tuesday night at Fouts Field.

North Texas (1-3, 1-1 Sun Belt) lost its first conference game since a 2001 loss to Louisiana-Monroe in the Mean Green’s first-ever Sun Belt game. Troy (2-3, 1-0) won its first conference game of the season.

Freshman quarterback Daniel Meager scored on a 20-yard run with 1:38 left in the game to bring North Texas within three, 13-10. It was NT’s second rushing touchdown of the season. The Mean Green failed to gain possession on the ensuing on-side kick, and the Trojans were able to run out the clock to seal the win.

“It came down to turnovers and missed opportunities,” said North Texas head coach Darrell Dickey. “I’m disappointed that we made a lot of mistakes again and that prevented us from scoring.”

North Texas recorded five turnovers in the game, tying for the most in the Dickey era. Three of the last four NT drives resulted in turnovers. Towards the end of the third quarter, North Texas started a drive near midfield after junior Johnny Quinn returned the kickoff 21 yards.

On third and fifteen, Meager completed a 28-yard pass to Zach Muzzy, his third longest toss of the year. After a sack and an incomplete pass to Quinn, Meager threw his first of two interceptions in the game. Meager threw for a career-high 129 yards in the game.

The Mean Green’s first points of the game came in the second quarter when senior Nick Bazaldua connected on a 21-yard field goal. Bazaldua missed a 51-yard field-goal attempt in the first quarter.

Troy took 49 seconds to take an early 7-0 lead after recovering a fumble on NT’s 17-yard line. Quarterback Carl Meadows completed a 16-yard touchdown pass to Toris Rutledge to put the Trojans ahead. Greg Whibbs connected on two of three field goals the help the Troy offense.

Senior cornerback Ja’Mel Branch became the fifth Mean Green defender to record an interception this season when he halted the Trojans’ first drive of the game.

North Texas returns to action on Saturday, Oct. 15 when it travels to Florida to play against FIU.