DIVISION II
OBU soars in D2 playoffs
ARKADELPHIA — Ouachita Baptist took advantage of a late touchdown in the second quarter to take the momentum into the second half and defeat Indianapolis, 35-7, in the second round of the NCAA Division II Football Championship tournament.
The Great American Conference champion Tigers (12-0) made the most of their bye week as they beat the Great Lakes Valley Conference champion Greyhounds (10-2) in every aspect of the game. The win pits the Tigers against the Ferris State Bulldogs (13-0) Saturday in the final of Super Region 3.
“I’m just so proud of these guys for getting to 12 wins,” said Tigers head coach Todd Knight. “You start out with 168 teams in Division II, and we’re down to eight teams. It’s special to be a part of that.”
“They beat us in every facet of the football game,” said Indianapolis head
coach Bob Bartolomeo.
“It was a total beatdown. Hats off to them. They were a better football team today than we were. They blocked better, they tackled better, threw it better. Every facet of the football game, we got our butts beat.”
It looked to be a back-andforth affair early as the Greyhounds scored a touchdown with 12:51 left in the second quarter in response to the Tigers’ score with 7:54 left in the first, but after Drew Harris found his way into the end zone with 10:15 remaining in the half, Ouachita’s defense gave the Tigers another shot.
The Tigers got the ball back with 2:40 remaining in the half, and they slowly worked their way downfield until redshirt freshman quarterback Brayden Brazeal found senior receiver Drew Harris on a 15-yard shot to the Indianapolis 38. A roughing the passer call added another 15 yards to the end of the play, leaving the Tigers with just 23 yards to go and 35 seconds remaining in the half.
Harris, who has struggled with a knee injury all season, limped off of the field following the play, but he was targeted by Brazeal five plays later for an eight-yard pass to the end zone to take the momentum into the break.
“It’s my senior year,” Harris said. “I thought it might be the last time I play in Cliff Harris. You’ve got to tough those out. I fell on my knee, kind of banged it up. I rubbed some dirt on it and went back out there.”
Knight admitted that the touchdown helped to swing the momentum of the game.
“I played for a guy here, Buddy Bob Benson,” he said. “He always said, the team that scores right before the half wins 80 percent of the time. Every time we score before the half like that, I think of coach Benson.”
The Tigers defense allowed just four plays to start the second half before the Ouachita offense took over. Kris Oliver, of Arkadelphia, caught a pass in midfield from Brazeal on a third-and-six play, breaking free for a 64-yard touchdown to put the Tigers ahead by three touchdowns.
“He threw the ball really well today,” Knight said of Brazeal. “We’ve had some games where we didn’t hit open guys. He was really, really good today. I thought our protection was good.”
Shun’cee Thomas broke free for a 63-yard rush up the middle on the Tigers’ next drive to secure the Tigers’ first-ever football playoff win.
Late in the third quarter, Indianapolis senior offensive lineman Skylar Lacy was ejected from the game after a pair of back-to-back unsportsmanlike conduct calls for attacking a Ouachita defender and ripping off the player’s helmet. On the next play, junior running back Tyree Lee was ejected for attacking another Ouachita player.
“I apologize on behalf of the University of Indianapolis, my football program, our football program, for the incident that happened out there,” Bartolomeo said. “That’s not indicative of our program. … That’s not characteristic of us.”
Indianapolis senior linebacker Cole Sigmund said the Tigers reliance on the passing game caught the Greyhounds off guard.
“It was very surprising,” he said. “I felt like we were very prepared for the run. We focused on that, heavily. We focused on their short, crossing routes, digs, hitches, screens that they most completed, but we weren’t expecting them to throw as much as they did.”