What happened Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium almost defies description. In one of the greatest offensive shootouts in the 76-year history of the Lone Star Conference, the No. 21 ACU Wildcats had more bullets in their gun than did No. 8 Tarleton State as the Wildcats walked out of Memorial Stadium with a stunning 70-63 win over the Texans in front of 6,412 Homecoming fans.

The victory pushes the Wildcats to 7-2 overall, 6-1 in the LSC and 3-1 in the LSC South, while the the Texans fall to 7-1, 5-1 and 3-1. More importantly for the Wildcats, their win -- coupled with a Northwest Missouri State win over Washburn and a Chadron State win over Mesa State -- helped the Wildcats' push for a berth in the NCAA Division II playoffs. Tarleton State was No. 4 in the regional rankings, while ACU was No. 10 in the region entering the game. In other games, Washburn was No. 6, while Mesa State was No. 5, meaning both of those teams will drop in this week's poll, while the Wildcats will move back up in the poll.

ACU's next chance to continue its push for a second straight playoff berth will be Saturday at 2 p.m. when the Wildcats host Texas A&M-Kingsville in the 2007 home finale. The Wildcats have won three straight over the Javelinas, and can't afford a loss to the 2-7 Javelinas, who beat Eastern New Mexico, 38-35, Saturday night.

While there were many outstanding performances on both offenses Saturday in Stephenville, none could top the performance of ACU junior running back Bernard Scott, who in the same game set the ACU single-game rushing and single-season rushing records, and tied the LSC and ACU single-game records for touchdowns in a game. Scott finished with 283 rushing yards and six touchdowns on 29 carries, and he also completed one pass for 66 yards to give him 349 yards of total offense in the game. He also now has 21 rushing touchdowns on the season, which is the second-best single-season total in school history behind the 31 that Montgomery scored as a freshman in 1973.

"Yeah, it was a pretty good day," said Scott, who broke Don Harr's 37-year-old school record for rushing yards in a game (275 vs. McMurry in 1970). "But I have to give all the credit to the offensive line. Those guys opened holes all day long, and they kept the heat off (quarterback) Billy (Malone) and let us make plays. We thought we could make some plays and score some points against (Tarleton), but I don't think anybody could have imagined what we were able to do today.

"It was a lot of fun out there," Scott said. "We knew it was going to be a battle going in to this one, and we were able to make couple more plays in the end."

In the process of breaking the single-game record, Scott also finished the game as the school's single-season rushing leader with 1,365 yards, shattering the previous record of 1,211 yards set by Eric Polk in 2001. And the six touchdowns tie Wilbert Montgomery's ACU and LSC single-game record, which was set in a 57-50 win over Stephen F. Austin on Oct. 6, 1973.

Aside from Scott's performance, Malone threw for 279 yards and ACU ran for 370 as the Wildcats rang up 715 yards of total offense, the second-highest single-game total in school history behind the 740 yards the 1952 team posted in a win over Howard Payne. The 715 yards also marks the second time in their last three games that ACU has topped the 700-yard barrier.

The 70 points is the most scored by the Wildcats in the modern era (since 1950), and its the most scored by an ACU team since a 70-0 win over Randolph Air Force Base in 1922.

As crazy as the beginning of the game was, it was topped by the second half, which saw a combined 77 points by the two teams. ACU led 35-14 late in the first half before Tarleton State drove to a touchdown pass from Scott Grantham to Roderick Smith to make it 35-21 with 45 seconds left in the first half. But that was plenty of time for the Wildcats, who had three one-play scoring drives in the game.

ACU moved briskly from its own 20 to the Tarleton State 30 on the strength of back-to-back runs of 15 and 35 yards by Scott. After two incomplete passes, however, Malone threw the first of three interceptions on the final play of the first half.

The Texans carried that momentum into the third quarter where they outscored ACU 28-6 to take a 49-41 lead at the end of the third quarter. Shemarr Prentice caught a 9-yard scoring pass from Grantham on Tarleton's first drive, an 11-yard drive that was set up by a 78-yard kickoff return by Nathan Robinson to open the second half.

After the Wildcats went three-and-out, Tarleton tied the game at 35-35 with 9:54 left in the third quarter when Grantham found Hunter Storm for a 1-yard scoring pass and the Texans had fought their way back from down 35-14 to tie the game.

But ACU answered with a big scoring drive that was capped by a 4-yard touchdown run by Scott, making the score 41-35 with 7:26 left in the third quarter. The drive was aided by a 13-yard pass from Malone to Scott and a 15-yard roughing the passer penalty on the end of that play. Scott had a 6-yard run and then caught another 11-yard pass before taking it into the end zone from four yards away. The snap was bad on the PAT, however, and the Wildcats had to settle for a six point lead.

After the teams traded interceptions, the Texans went on another short scoring drive, this time a 20-yard drive that was capped by a Michael Sampson 1-yard run that made it 41-41. Stephen Arnold, though, made his extra-point kick and the Texans had their first lead since 14-7 at 42-41. Malone was intercepted two plays later, and two plays after that, Sampson scored from 13 yards out to make it 49-41 late in the third quarter, and it appeared ACU's playoff hopes were slipping away.

But much as the Texans dominated the third quarter, the fourth quarter would belong to the Wildcats.

Scott capped a 10-play, 58-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run that made it 49-47 with 12:18 left in the game. ACU got the game tied at 49-49 on a reverse to Edmund Gates, who strolled in for the two-point conversion. Tarleton answered in one play, though, as Grantham hit Devin Guinn from 66 yards away to give the Texans a 56-49 lead with 12:03 left in the game.

But Scott would simply take over the game from that point on as he scored three touchdowns in the final 9:46 of the game. The first of those three was a two-yard run that capped an eight-play 70-yard drive that tied the score at 56-56 with 9:46 to play. Scott handled the ball on four plays in the drive, and Malone completed a pair of passes to Jerale Badon that moved the ball down to the 2-yard line where Scott finished it off.

ACU then got maybe the break of the game on Tarleton's next offensive drive. Facing third-and-7 from his own 30-yard line, Grantham hit Sampson on a perfectly executed screen pass that should have gone for big yards. However, as Sampson was moving toward the middle of the field, he inexplicably lost his footing at the 35-yard line and fell two yards short of the first down when he had at least another 15 yards of real estate in front of him. The Texans were forced to punt, giving the ball back to the Wildcats with 7:44 to play.

Scott needed just one play to give the Wildcats the lead back as he broke a 73-yard touchdown run that gave ACU a 63-56 lead with 7:33 left in the wild contest. The Texas responded once again, however, as they drove 60 yards in five plays and 3:06 to get the game tied again at 63-63. The bigigest play in the drive was the first as Grantham -- who threw for 384 yards and tied the LSC record with six touchdown passes -- hit Prentice with a 45-yard pass on the first play of the drive. Grantham then hit Guinn from eight yards out to tie the gameat 63-63 with 4:21 left in the game.

The Wildcats then mounted the drive that may have saved their season as they took over at their own 34-yard line with the game tied and the season hanging in the balance. Scott broke off runs of 4, 27, 6 and 2 yards to move the ball down to the Tarleton State 27-yard line where the Wildcats faced third-and-2 inside two minutes to play. Malone then threw a strike to Kendrick Holloway, who hauled in the 14-yard pass to keep the Wildcat drive alive.

Two more Scott runs netted three yards before ACU faced third-and 7 from the 10-yard line with 1:07 to play. Scott got the call again and was stacked up in the middle at the line of scrimmage before he was able to bounce it out right and outrun the TSU defense to the corner of the end zone for his sixth touchdown of the day. The all-important Adams PAT was good, and ACU led 70-63 with 58 seconds left.

But the Texans wouldn't die as the Wildcats were whistled for a pass interference penalty that moved the ball to the TSU 48-yard line. Two plays later, Grantham hit Guinn for 14 yards before hitting Prentice for another 14 yards to move the ball down to the 24-yard line. After two incompletions, the Texans had third-and-10 from the 24-yard line with 24 seconds to play when they inexplicably called an option play to the right that was snuffed out by a host of Wildcat defenders. That brought up fourth down, and Joe Edwards made the defensive play of the game for the Wildcats as he sacked Grantham to end the drive and set off a wild celebration on the ACU sideline.

"I've never been involved in a game like that," ACU head coach Chris Thomsen. "You have to give a lot of credit to both offenses, but I was tremendously proud of our guys. That was all heart out there today, because there probably weren't a lot of people outside our circle that gave us much of a chance to win this game. But our guys believed it, and they believed that over 60 minutes we'd find a way to win it. And our defense finally made a play when we absolutely had to have it. We have to get better there, but they made two plays they absolutely had to have at the end to help us win this game."

Both teams came out firing in the first half as Tarleton State scored on its first drive after ACU went three-and-out on its first drive. However, after the TSU touchdown on its first drive of the game, ACU's big-play ability showed up as Malone hit Johnny Knox for a 68-yard touchdown pass to make it 7-7. After TSU answered with a Smith 25-yard touchdown run right up the middle, the Wildcats answered with a big kickoff return by Edmund Gates and then a one-play scoring drive that was a Scott 31-yard touchdwn run that tied the game at 14-14.

ACU then took control of the contest when, after Grantham was intercepted by Josh Wise at the ACU 27-yard line, Gates struck again. Gates, the freshman wide receiver from Vernon, took the speed handoff to the right where he was bottled up by the TSU defense. He quickly reversed his field, got a chip block from Malone, found a hole up the middle and then broke to the sideline and then went untouched for a 73-yard scoring run that put ACU up 21-14.

After TSU missed a field goal on its next drive, ACU answered with a 7-play, 70-yard drive that was capped by a 20-yard scoring strike from Malone to Knox, giving ACU a 28-14 lead with 10:32 left in the first half. Tarleton State again drove down the field, only to see Stephen Arnold miss a field goal from 27 yards, and the Wildcats wasted little time making the Texans pay for the miss.

On first down, Scott took a pitch left, stopped and heaved a pass deep to Gates, who had gotten behind the secondary and hauled in the halfback option pass for a 66-yard game that took the ball down to the Tarleton State 7-yard line. Two plays later Knox scored on a run to make it 35-14. Tarleton State scored late in the first half to set up the wild final 30 minutes.

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