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Louisville holds off Arkansas St. for 3rd victory

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LOUISVILLE (AP) — Louisville football fans saw their team humbled last week in a loss to rival Cincinnati, when several Cardinals were injured, including the top two quarterbacks. That left redshirt freshman Will Stein to finish that game and coach Steve Kragthorpe unsure whom his starter would be for Saturday’s game against Arkansas State.

Maybe that’s why Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium was about half full for the game.

But Louisville fans who might not have expected much from their team, and chose trick-or-treating over the gridiron may have missed Stein’s coming out party.

Despite everything that looked like disadvantages for Stein, he helped the Cardinals (3-5) get back on the winning track after losing two in a row. Louisville beat Arkansas State 21-13, giving the Red Wolves (2-5) their fifth loss in six games.

Stein is still a walk-on for the Cardinals, playing without a scholarship, and had never started a college game. And he swears his listed height of 5-foot-10 is not exaggerated.

But his father taught him to deal with stuff like the taunts about his size from Arkansas State defenders early in the game.

“My dad told me, it’s not how big you are,” he said. “It’s how big you play.”

Kragthorpe put Stein in the lineup as a game-time decision, Stein said, instead of the banged-up Adam Froman who had started Louisville’s previous four games. Justin Burke started Louisville’s first two games.

Stein completed 20 of 39 passes for 232 yards and one interception.

“He did everything we asked him to,” Kragthorpe said. “We didn’t scale back anything. We had total confidence in him.”

Darius Ashley, also a redshirt freshman, ran for 77 yards and two touchdowns, and Bilal Powell ran for 93 yards.

The Cardinals led 21-3 with less than 2 minutes to play in the third quarter but had a hard time putting the Red Wolves (2-5) away for good.

Arkansas State quarterback Corey Leonard found Brandon Thompkins in the end zone with 1:14 to play in the third quarter. The Red Wolves added a field goal in the fourth to close the lead to eight.

Leonard’s last pass flew over the head of receiver Trevor Gillott in the end zone with 22 seconds left in the game, and Louisville ran the clock out. Leonard threw for 303 yards, but had two interceptions.

Leonard had also shown that he was a threat with his feet, rushing for 120 yards in a win over Florida International last week.

But the Cardinals defense had its best game defending the run since their first game of the season, holding Arkansas State to 45 yards, including 18 by Leonard, and 22 by Reggie Arnold.

“We are not as physical as we need to be,” Red Wolves coach Steve Roberts said. “And they are pretty good at stopping the run.”

Meanwhile, another Louisville freshman scored both of Louisville’s offensive touchdowns.

Ashley scored Louisville’s first touchdown of the game and his first career touchdown on a 26-yard run, with 5:34 to play in the first quarter. The Cardinals never trailed.

The team’s leading rusher, Victor Anderson, was among the Cardinals players missing the game with injuries.

But Kragthorpe knows it’s the time of year when a lot of teams are dealing with injuries.

“It’s just football,” he said. “These guys are fast. They’re physical, big and strong, and they’re knocking the dog out of each other. ... Guys are going to get beat up.”

Linebacker Brandon Heath scored Louisville’s second touchdown after he picked off a pass by Leonard and ran it back 25 yards with 5:57 to play in the first half.

Arkansas State could only generate a field goal by Josh Arauco after its most promising drive of the first half, 63 yards to Louisville’s 7-yard line. Their other four possessions of the half resulted in three punts, Heath’s interception, and the half expired as Leonard downed the ball with 2 seconds left.

The Cardinals went into halftime with a 14-3 lead after driving 88 yards and getting first-and-goal at the Red Wolves’ 2-yard line. Including a spike to stop the clock and a throwaway by Stein out of the end zone, Louisville threw incomplete passes on all four downs.

The Cardinals figured it out on their first possession of the second half, though, after the Red Wolves went three-and-out to start the third quarter. Louisville drove 64 yards on 10 plays, including two passes from Stein to Trent Guy for a combined 47 yards. Once the Cardinals got first-and-goal at Arkansas State’s 1-yard line, it took Ashley three chances, but he punched it in on third down for his second touchdown of the day to make the score 21-3.

Stein played it safe for much of the game, throwing the ball well out of bounds several times when no receiver was open, but threw an interception with 4:17 to play in the third quarter.

The Red Wolves jumped on the opportunity, driving from midfield to score their first touchdown of the game. A 47-yard pass from Leonard to Don Jones on the first play of the possession took care of most of the distance. A 4-yard pass from Leonard to Brandon Thompkins near the sideline in the end zone was called a touchdown after an official review, making the score 21-10 with 1:14 to play in the third quarter. Thompkins had seven catches in the game for 49 yards and Jones had three catches for 78 yards for Arkansas State.

Louisville missed a 36-yard field goal attempt on the following possession, leaving the door open for the Red Wolves in the final quarter. Arkansas State drove 76 yards to the Louisville 4-yard line, but had to settle for a field goal, Arauco’s second of the day, making the score 21-13. Arauco set a Sun Belt Conference record for career field goals, with his second, giving him 51.

An interception by cornerback Chaz Thompson in the fourth quarter looked like it might have sealed the win for Louisville. The Cardinals punted after failing to get a first down and the Red Wolves still had a shot but failed to get another score, giving the Cardinals the ball back with 22 seconds to play.

Leonard accepted responsibility for his two interceptions.

“I thought I put us at a huge disadvantage with that pick right there in the fourth quarter,” he said. “If I cut down on the turnovers myself, we could be in a better position to win.”