Muleriders fall short at Ouachita Baptist
ARKADELPHIA - It was a rough afternoon for No. 20 Southern Arkansas as the Muleriders dropped its Week 10 Great American Conference affair to No. 4 Ouachita 35-10 on Saturday afternoon from Cliff Harris Stadium in Arkadelphia.
SAU fell to 8-2 on the season. The Tigers improved to 10-0.
Southern Arkansas appeared to have picked off a Brayden Brazeal pass on the first drive of the game but a personal foul penalty negated the turnover.
The Tigers had only four first half possessions, while the Muleriders managed just three.
Ouachita's Drew Harris took a pass from Brazeal 66 yards for the game's first touchdown. SAU answered with a 39-yard field goal from the foot of freshman Austin Wilkerson to put the Muleriders on the board. The kick was from the right hash and stands as a careerlong. The Tigers scored on their first drive of the second half to make it 21-3.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Muleriders had an opportunity to cut the deficit to two possessions, but a 21-yard field goal attempt was blocked to end the once-promising drive that finished in 18 plays and covered 77 yards in 7:40.
The time of possession on that Mulerider drive and coming up empty on the FGA hurt SAU's chances of mounting a comeback.
The Tigers scored quickly in four plays that covered 81 yards to take a 28-3 lead with 9:47 to play.
The lone SAU touchdown came with 6:42 remaining in the game as Dennis Daniels scored from a yard out for his first career touchdown.
Higgins' first catch of the afternoon broke the program's career receptions record and he finished with five catches for 43 yards. The Searcy, Arkansas, native now has 184 career catches, most all-time by a Mulerider, and is 24 yards away from breaking Nik Lewis' program record for receiving yards.
Michael Ingram was the Muleriders' leading receiver with three catches for 60 yards. Jared Lancaster followed with several big catches of his six receptions which totaled 46 yards.
Seven players hauled in passes from Barrett Renner who finished 21-of-29 for 215 yards.
Six players carried the football on Saturday, but Southern Arkansas totaled just 91 yards on the afternoon.
LaMontrick Turner, Malachi Pointer, and Antonio Washington all tallied five tackles and Kobe McDonald recorded two of the team's three sacks.
For OBU, Junction City's Keandre Evans had five tackles, including one tackle for loss. El Dorado's Ernest Reed had two tackles, including a sack.
UA-Monticello 24, Henderson State 17
ARKADELPHIA — Down by 15 points with just over 10 minutes remaining on Saturday afternoon, Henderson State staged a comeback that brought them within two yards of potentially tying the game, but the Reddies' final drive stalled at the goal line as they fell 24-17 to Arkansas-Monticello at Carpenter-Haygood Stadium and Ruggles Field.
Already leading 17-9, UAM (5-5) got a 21-yard touchdown pass with 10:24 to go in the game which gave the Weevils a commanding 24-9 advantage heading down the home stretch.
Henderson (5-5) was not done, however. Doug Johnson gave the Reddies a boost on the ensuing kickoff with the team's best return of the year out to the UAM 47-yard line and HSU took advantage, as it staged a nine-play, 47-yard scoring drive, capped by a 20-yard touchdown pass from Richard Stammetti to Chase Lodree on 4th-and-10. The score was the second fourth down-conversion of the drive for the Reddies.
Instead of kicking the extra point, Henderson came through with a trick play for the twopoint conversion, as Logan Moragne took the snap and pitched to Lodree, who found Stammetti all alone, to make it 24-17 with 8:02 to go.
For the Boll Weevils, El Dorado native Christian Jefferson recorded five tackles from the secondary.