Tigers fall, Bisons advance in playoffs
BIG RAPIDS, Mich. — Ouachita Baptist scored a touchdown on the game’s third play but settled for field goals thereafter and lost 24-19 to Ferris State in the NCAA Division II playoffs Saturday.
Ferris State (10-1) overcame a 13-point deficit and four first-half turnovers, scoring the winning touchdown with slightly more than six minutes left in the game. Ouachita (9-3) could not score again, Ferris State running out the clock after Austin Warford threw an interception with three seconds remaining.
Ouachita led 7-0 after Warford found Kris Oliver across the middle for a 71-yard score. Cole Antley kicked two of his four field goals for a 13-0 lead before Ferris State scored a touchdown with 3:37 left in the second quarter. The Bulldogs fumbled three times in the first half, including once within the Ouachita five-yard line, and threw an interception.
Ouachita added two Antley field goals but turned the ball over three times in the second half.
Warford, a redshirt senior from Malvern, completed 17 of 40 passes for 219 yards. Oliver, a junior from Arkadelphia, rushed 21 times for 62 yards and caught seven passes for 94 yards.
Senior linebacker Luke Holt had a team-high 10 tackles for Great American Conference champion Ouachita. Harding-Indianapolis
INDIANAPOLIS — Harding came from behind twice in the second half and downed unbeaten Indianapolis 27-24 Saturday in the NCAA Division II playoffs.
Quarterback Terrence Dingle ran 25 yards for the winning touchdown with 9:15 left at Key Stadium. The Bisons turned back Indianapolis on a 15-play, 54-yard drive that reached the Harding one-yard line, the host team losing six yards on a fumble and botching the snap on an attempt for a tying field goal.
The lead changed hands twice in the first 1:22 of the fourth quarter, Jake Purichia’s 47-yard pass to Malik Higgins putting the
home team ahead 24-21.
Harding’s Grant Kimberlin ran for 145 yards, 68 to the Indianapolis 28 on the first play of the winning drive. Dingle scored two plays later and finished with 93 yards.
In a game played under rainy, windy conditions and lasting only
2 hours, 3 minutes, Harding’s running attack produced all of the team’s 349 yards. The Bisons passed only once and claimed two interceptions off Indianapolis.
Harding led 14-0 after 17:57 of clock time, Dingle running three yards and Cole Chancey two yards for touchdowns. Al McKeller ran for two touchdowns, both from three yards out, and Brad Schickel kicked a 27-yard field goal for a 17-14 Indianapolis led with
8:54 left in the third quarter.
Zach Shelley’s five-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter regained the lead for Harding, 24-21.
Harding (9-3), receiving an at-large bid to the playoffs after tying for second in the Great American Conference, has won nine consecutive. Indianapolis finished 11-1.