SHAWNEE - The Oklahoma Baptist football team used a huge second quarter to build a two possession lead and held off a late Arkansas-Monticello rally to take a 33-31 win over the Boll Weevils on a cool, sunny Homecoming afternoon at Crain Family Stadium at the Hurt Complex.
The two teams were even throughout the day with OBU going for 461 total yards including 355 through the air. The Bison ran 69 plays and averaged 6.7 yards and were 6 of 14 on third downs as well as 1 of 1 on fourth down. Arkansas-Monticello finished with 459 yards of total offense doing most of their damage on the ground with 366 yards, but turned it over two times on the day.
The two teams exchanged possessions to start the game, but Arkansas-Monticello ate up a majority of the clock in the first quarter as OBU only ran four plays. UAM went on a 14-play, 48-yard drive that took up 6:58 of clock as Devontae Dean was the workhorse, scoring from a yard out to give the Weevils a 7-0 lead.
Going into the second quarter, OBU was forced to punt again despite getting into Weevil territory.
Hayden Ashley placed a beautiful kick on the UAM four yard line to back the Weevil offense up. The OBU defense forced a three-and-out and the Bison got on the board thanks to special teams as an errant snap flew over the punters head and out the back of the endzone to cut the deficit to 7-2.
OBU took the following possession after the safety and got completions of 15 yards to
Jacques Henderson and 11 yards to
Isaiah Mallory to move deep into UAM territory. However, the drive stalled and OBU settled for a 32-yard field goal from
Luke Wendl to cut the deficit to 7-5.
The Bison defense forced yet another three and out and the offense went back to work as
Preston Haire found
Noah McGraw for a 20 yard gain while
Tyler Stuever had a 20 yard rush followed by a nine yard gain to get into the redzone. A few plays later, Haire put together a picture perfect option read, taking it right up the middle for six to give OBU their first lead of the game at 12-7 with under two to play in the half.
The Weevils looked for points of their own, but instead were turned away to another three and out by a stingy OBU defense. The Bison got the ball back with 1:06 to play in the half and marched 84 yards in under a minute. Haire had completions of 11 and 17 to Henderson and then found McGraw for a 24 yard gain to get deep into UAM territory. Haire struck again on the ground, this time from 16 yards out, to increase the lead to 19-7 at the break.
OBU missed opportunities to push their lead in the second half, as they failed to score on their first two possessions. The Weevils made the Bison pay with a field goal on their first possession followed by another touchdown from Dean to make it a 19-17 game.
The Bison answered in three plays as Haire connected with
Keilahn Harris for a 40-yard touchdown to push the lead back out to 26-17. UAM responded with a 10 play drive into the redzone going into the fourth quarter but Demilon Brown's pass was intercepted in the endzone by
Felipe Alvear who brought it out to the 10 yard line for first and 10.
Two plays later, Haire found Harris again, this time on a 78 yard pitch and catch as Harris left his feet and brought the pass in at arms length and used his tremendous speed to burn the Weevile secondary to get the lead out to 16 at 33-17.
UAM went down and was able to add another touchdown with less than 10 minutes to play in the contest, but inexplicably, the Weevils settled for an extra point instead of a two-point conversion to keep it a two possession game at 33-24. UAM did get the ball back and moved into OBU territory, but Alvear struck again, forcing a Dean fumble that was recovered by
Josh Arnold.
From there, OBU used a 12-play drive to run almost five minutes of clock, making the Weevils use their three timeouts in the process. UAM did go down to score with 1:29 remaining, but could not go for two and the tie after the decision earlier in the contest. The Weevil's attempted an onside kick, but Harris recovered and OBU ran the clock out for the Homecoming victory.
Haire had a tremendous contest, going 22 of 38 for 355 yards and two scores while also running 10 times for 62 yards and two more touchdowns. Harris added three carries for 131 yards and two scores while Henderson hauled in six passes for 76 yards. Stuever rushed seven times for 45 yards.
For UAM, Brown was 11 of 18 for 93 yards, two scores, and an INT while also rushing 11 times for 120 yards. Dean added 23 carries for 187 yards for two scores while DeAndre Washington had three catches for 45 yards and two scores.
Defensively, Alvear finished with five tackles, an interception, and a forced fumble while
Trajan Lands had 12 tackles.
Myles Russell added eight tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss while
Nick Boone had eight tackles and 0.5 tackles for loss.
For UAM, Gabe Brace finished with eight tackles while Brandon Young had five tackles, two tackles for loss, and a sack.
Oklahoma Baptist moves to 4-4 on the season with three games to play. They will hit the road next week to Alva as they take Northwestern Oklahoma State with a kickoff set for 1 PM.
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