ADA, Okla. – What a historic night for the Oklahoma Baptist football. Two significant individual records were broken tonight as the Bison football team (4-3, 4-3 GAC) took care of East Central (4-3, 4-3 GAC) 47-20 inside Koi Ishto Stadium on Saturday night. Tonight's victory tallies the 14th consecutive win over an Oklahoma school for OBU.
The night belonged to Josh Cornell as the wideout put together a career game, catching four touchdowns for 105 yards. Those four touchdown receptions break the single-game school record, previously set at three by Keilahn Harris earlier this season, and gives Cornell 21 touchdowns in his career. Cornell needed one touchdown to break the school record of 17 career touchdowns, set by Josh Pettijohn (2015-18), and he did so in a memorable fashion.
Quarterback Preston Haire posted another six-touchdown performance, as he's done for the second time this season, to tie his school record of passing touchdowns in a single game. Haire compiled 399 yards of total offense, including 347 yards passing and 52 rushing.
Amid the OBU offense's outstanding tonight, the Bison defense made alot of noise as they stood tall on multiple occasions, holding a talented Tiger offense to 306 total yards. Through the air, the Bison secondary shut down ECU for only 107 yards and no scores. OBU bought real estate in the Tiger backfield as they sacked East Central four times for 27 yards.
The feeling of the ballgame felt bleak as ECU crossed the endzone first to draw the inaugural quarter score to 7-0, but that mood quickly changed as OBU soon found its rhythm. Cornell and Haire connected for the first OBU touchdown with five minutes left in the first quarter, capping off a six-play, 68-yard drive.
After a Tiger field goal, Haire found Keilahn Harris on a 29-yard strike to put the Bison on top, 13-10. Cornell would add another to his electric first quarter as Haire found the receiver in the endzone with seven minutes left in the half. OBU needed on more before the break as Rueben Thompson punched one in from two yards out, his sixth score of the season, to extend their lead to 27-13.
Cornell found the endzone a couple more times in the second half while Michael Marshall hauled in one of his own to solidify OBU's huge 47-20 win.
On the ground, Tyler Stuever churned his way to 128 yards, averaging 5.1 yards per carry, while Thompson recorded the lone Bison rushing score of the evening. Harris racked up 72 yards and a score while Michael Marshall caught a couple of balls for a touchdown too. Shae Garner and Julian Clarke collected 50 and 31 yards, respectively.
Defensively, Will Kohman led OBU with 10 total tackles, while Nick Boone collected eight. Boone added 1.5 TFLs and 1.0 sacks to round up his night. Josh Arnold recorded five solo tackles and 2.0 TFLs, while seven other Bison played a part in a tackle for loss.
The tandem of true freshman Malik Allen and Robery Lolofie notched a sack apiece while Nick Carpin was in on 0.5 sack.
Oklahoma Baptist extinguishes their two-game skid and looks to remain in the win column next week as they host Southeastern Oklahoma (6-1, 6-1 GAC) for homecoming. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. inside Crain Family Stadium at the Hurt Complex.
