Bison to Host Savage Storm on Homecoming

SHAWNEE – The Oklahoma Baptist football team returns to Shawnee for Homecoming as Southeastern Oklahoma State invades Crain Family Stadium at the Hurt Complex on Saturday night. OBU welcomes the Savage Storm to Shawnee for their sixth meeting all-time, and third on the campus of the Bison.

Live video of Saturday's contest is available on OBUBison.com and OBU fans can listen to the broadcast on the Bison Radio Network with the trio of Todd Miller, John Brooks, and Scott Wanish.

Game Notes

• The Bison are coming off a huge 47-20 road win over the East Central Tigers, where the offense racked up seven total touchdowns. OBU put together 27 first-half points before adding 20 points to their thumping of ECU. 

A DUO LIKE NO OTHER

• Week after week, receivers Josh Cornell and Keilahn Harris make headlines for doing something spectacular on a Saturday night. The best receiving duo in the nation did it again as they combined for five touchdowns and 177 yards against East Central. Cornell garnered most of the credit as he reeled in five passes for 105 yards and four scores. If you read that right, the junior landed in the endzone on all but one of his Saturday night catches. He broke the all-time OBU record for touchdown receptions in a single game, set earlier in the season at three by Harris. This is by far a career-high for Cornell, as his previous best was two touchdowns in a single game, which he'd done four times before.
• That's not it. After his electrifying outing, Cornell now has 21 career touchdown receptions, which breaks the all-time OBU record of 17, set by Josh Pettijohn (2015-18). This season, he has 49 receptions for 570 yards and nine scores. That touchdown total matches teammate Harris and is a tie for fourth in the country. Keilahn Harris caught five passes for 72 yards and a score to accompany Cornell in their handling on the Tigers. Harris has caught at least one touchdown in all but one game this season. He now has 762 yards, nine scores, and 58 receptions on the year. Cornell and Harris are the only duo on the same team to rank within the top-10, nationally, in both receiving touchdowns and receptions. 

• After being held to season lows of 52 and 15 yards over the last couple of weeks, tailback Tyler Stuever regained his mojo as he went for 128 yards against ECU. Stuever averaged 5.1 yards on 25 attempts, including a game-long rumble of 21 yards. This season, he has reached at least 128 rushing yards in three games. Stuever leads the Bison rushing attack with 724 total yards, while his three scores on the year, which rank second on the squad. He sits fourth in the league and 16th in the nation for total yards, as he averages 103.4 per game. The runningback moved to No. 2 on the all-time school rushing list with 1,979 career yards, passing Jordan Barnes (2013-15) at 1,966. He is now only 21 yards away from becoming the second player in Bison history to eclipse the 2,000-yard mark.  
• The Bison have assembled a one-two punch in the backfield as senior runningback Rueben Thompson has proved to be a nightmare in the redzone for opposing teams. Thompson has a team-high six scores to go along with 145 yards so far this season. That touchdown total ranks fifth in the conference and is tied for 10th in the nation. In fact, he has already surpassed his career touchdowns and yards total this season. 

THE HEAD HUNCHO

• As if one six-touchdown game wasn't enough this season, quarterback Preston Haire did it again last week. Haire pitched six scores to match his single-game career-high, set this season against NWOSU (9/18), to go along with 399 yards of total offense. The senior passed for 347 yards and rushed for a season-high 52 yards in the win over ECU. He now has 97 career passing touchdowns and is three shy of breaking 100 to become the third player in league history to record over 100 career passing touchdowns. Haire joins nine others for a second-place tie in GAC history for most touchdowns thrown in a single game. Nationally, Haire's 24 passing touchdowns are tied for second, while his 189 completions are good for third. He leads the GAC in completions, touchdowns, and yards as he averages 302.3 yards per game. The Texan has done all this while completing 64.1 percent of his passes this season.

RARE FEAT

• How good was the OBU defense after surrendering ten first-quarter points to East Central last week? In the final three stanzas, the Bison gave up just ten more points. Since the NCAA DII transitional year of 2015, that's the second-fewest points given up over a three-quarter stretch by the Bison. During a Sept. 10, 2016, matchup against Arkansas Tech, the Bison limited the Wonderboys to eight points between the second and fourth quarters during a 19-15 victory. 

IN A CLASS OF HIS OWN

• Josh Arnold's senior season has been nothing short of outstanding. He is tied for the GAC lead in tackles (62) and is ranked first with seven sacks. But that's only part of the story. During last week's road win against East Central, Arnold came up with six solo tackles and one assisted tackle. That assisted stop moved him into first place all-time at OBU. Arnold now has 160 assisted tackles passing Bryndon Pitzer '17 for most career assisted tackles.

CRACKING THE CENTURY MARK

• While Josh Arnold has received some much-deserved pub, fellow linebacker Nick Boone has been really good, too. So far this season, the Allen, Texas native has posted the third-best tackle total in the GAC with 60. Among his best performances included a 16-tackle, 2.5 tackle-for-loss showing in the season opener at Ouachita. Those marks have helped the young linebacker near the century mark in tackles. Coming into this Saturday's game against Southeastern, he needs just six more stops to hit 100 in his career.

• Oklahoma Baptist extinguished their two-game skid as they made quick work of East Central 47-20 last week in Ada. The victory marked the 14th consecutive Bison win over an Oklahoma opponent. OBU posted their second-highest scoring outing of the year, reaching the endzone seven different times. The Bison outagained the Tigers 574-304, as the total offense mark was their most all season. Quarterback Preston Haire threw six touchdowns for the second time this season, including 347 yards through the air and 52 rushing yards.  Receiver Josh Cornell caught four touchdown passes to set an all-time OBU record for touchdown receptions in a single game. Cornell also became the all-time school leader in career touchdowns (21), after needing one to eclipse Josh Pettijohn's record of 17. Tyler Stuever stepped out of his two-game slump to rack up 128 yards, averaging over five yards per carry. Rueben Thompson also found the endzone once for his sixth touchdown of the season.
• Despite ECU breaking the seal with the game's first score, OBU hopped on their high-horse to score 27 first-half points. The Bison kept the same energy in the second as 20 more points put a cap on their fourth triumph of the year. Will Kohman led the Bison defense with 12 tackles, including eight solos, while Josh Arnold added eight. Arnold also notched a team-high 2.0 TFLs as Nick Boone collected seven tackles and 1.5 TFLs of his own. OBU sacked the Tigers four times and compiled 10.0 TFLs. Cornerback Tyler King swatted down two passes to lead a secondary that limited ECU to just passing 107 yards. 

SCOUTING THE SAVAGE STORM

• Southeastern Oklahoma State comes into the weekend with a 6-1 record, which is a significant turnaround from their 2019 season where SEOSU posted a 1-10 record. Head Coach Tyler Fenwick has his squad in a four-way tie for first in the conference as the Savage Storm topped powerhouse No. 12 Harding 32-31 in overtime earlier this year. SEOSU boasts the third-ranked offense in the league, averaging over 400 yards per game and 31 touchdowns on the season. Southeastern has only been held under 31 points once this year, happening in their 27-24 loss to Henderson State.The Savage Storm are coming off a 43-10 thumping of Northwestern Oklahoma State, where the SEOSU offense compiled 393 yards. Southeastern shot out of a cannon to score 16 points in the first quarter and never looked back as a 14-point fourth-quarter topped off their sixth victory of the season. 
• Junior quarterback Daulton Hatley leads the Savage Storm offense with 1,786 yards and 16 touchdowns. This year, Hatley has been extremely accurate, completing over 64 percent of his passes with only four interceptions. The SEOSU rushing attack is headed by runningbacks CJ Shavers and Deundre Wheeler. Shavers has a team-high 431 yards on the ground while Wheeler has recorded eight scores, good for third in the GAC.Junior linebacker Maalik Hall ranks number one on the defense with 44 tackles, 9.0 TFLs, and 3.0 sacks. Hall's tackles for loss are good for fourth in the league. Jaylen Shaw and Josh Mulumba lead a stingy Savage Storm secondary with two interceptions apiece. Mulumba is second on the team with 37 tackles, while he has also broken up four passes and forced one fumble.
• In 2019, Oklahoma Baptist put together a major four-quarter comeback to overcome SEOSU 34-31 in Durant. The OBU offense scored twice in the concluding quarter and 414 total yards in the game to claim the dynamic victory. Preston Haire finished with 331 yards and three scores, while Josh Cornell caught 12 passes for 126 yards. Haire found Shae Garner for a 27-yard score with 50 seconds left to lift the Bison over Southeastern.