The Contraband

Issue date: 10/30/06 Section: Sports

Two of the top kick returners in the country will be on display Saturday when McNeese State and Sam Houston State meet up in a Southland Conference football game in Huntsville, Texas. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. at Bowers Stadium with the Cowboys' Steven Whitehead and the Bearkats Derrick Harris to be the featured performers.
Whitehead, a junior from Slidell, LA, currently leads the nation in punt returns and he's also tops in the SLC in both punt returns and kickoff returns. He's averaging 21.3 yards a punt return and 23.7 a kickoff return. Harris, a senior from Waco, Tx is averaging 28.6 yards per punt return and 21.5 per kickoff return. He isn't ranked nationally in punt returns because he has not met the minimum requirement of 1.5 returns per game. Both have run punts back for touchdowns this season, Whitehead having a 60 yard sprint and Harris a long of 90 yards. While these two are showcasing their talent in the return department, other members of the teams will be providing their own fireworks.
Both teams operate with rookie quarterbacks. Derrick Fourroux leads the Cowboys with a total offense average of 164.4 yards per game. He's rushed for 248 yards and has completed 70 of 132 passes for 903 yards and five scores. Brett Hicks is averaging 158.3 yards per game and he's completed 100 of 173 passes for 1,155 yards and five scores for the Bearkats.
Sam Houston has the conference leader in D. D. Terry who has rushed for 624 yards and eight tds while McNeese's Jamie Leonard is ranked fourth with 501 yards and four scores.
Other offensive leaders for the Cowboys are place kicker Blake Bercegeay who has scored 39 points on six field goals and 21 PATs and wide receiver Quinten Lawrence who is averaging 16.1 yards a catch.
Sam Houston has the second leading receiver in the conference in Blake Martin who has caught 30 balls for 345 yards. Defensive leaders for the Cowboys are linebacker Allen Nelson who was named the SLC player of the week last week and leads the Cowboys with 58 tackles and end Bryan Smith who has 7.5 sacks.
Sam Houston is the only squad still undefeated in league play at 2-0. The Bearkats league play at 2-0. McNeese is 1-1.The Bearkats are 4-3 overall and McNeese is 3-4. A year ago in a rare afternoon game in Lake Charles, the Cowboys posted a 31-26 victory as Blake Bercegeay booted four field goals, Chris Allen returned a pass interception 24 yards for a td and Whitehead and Jeremy Haynes caught touchdown passes from Mark Fontenot. The quarterbacks for both teams in last year's game - Fontenot for the Cowboys and Phil Daugherty for SHS - will go into Saturday's tilt as backups at their position.

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