RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – Being a kicker at any level of football is not for the faint of heart and very few are able to withstand the pressures and thrive in the role. For the Arkansas Tech football team, they have been fortunate over the course of the past four seasons played to have a kicker up to the task in
Jesus Zizumbo.
In what was his final career game at his home field, Thone Stadium at Buerkle Field, Zizumbo displayed the resilience and poise you need out of a veteran kicker.
Coming into Saturday's game against Southwestern Oklahoma, Zizumbo was just two made field goals shy of tying the all-time record at Arkansas Tech, which was held by Piotr Styczen (1993-96). Given the weather conditions in the hours leading up to game time, rainy and windy, there was a feeling that the kicking game very well may decide things.
With the game tied at 7-all, Zizumbo got his first chance at a field goal as the Tech drive that started right at the beginning of the second quarter stalled at the SWOSU 16-yardline. That brought on Zizumbo for a 32-yard attempt, which he buried with no issues.
Later in the quarter, the Wonder Boys (4-5, 4-5 GAC) were trailing 14-10 and got the ball into the redzone, but were held short of the goal line at the SWOSU 3-yardline. At the same distance as an extra point, Zizumbo came on for the short try. Battling the wind coming in his front-facing direction, Zizumbo uncharacteristically missed the chance with 22 seconds left in the half.
That sent the game to halftime with SWOSU leading 14-10.
The Bulldogs (3-6, 3-6 GAC) got the ball to start the second half as Tech won the initial coin toss and elected to receive. SWOSU would quickly turn that first possession of the third quarter into points as they scored their touchdown of the game. With the extra-point, it was now a 21-10 SWOSU lead with 12:09 in the third quarter.
Tech answered right back on their ensuing drive and scored on a rare, but welcomed, scramble run by quarterback
Jack Grissom, who scored from 39 yards out to make it 21-16 pending the extra point. What has been a virtual automatic kick for Zizumbo in his career, a strike of the ball high up on the left upright resulted in the first missed extra point as a Wonder Boy for Zizumbo.
This is where the resolve by Zizumbo came into play.
The Tech defense rose to the occasion and forced a turnover on downs by SWOSU to get the back to the Wonder Boys offense with great field position with 7:55 to play in the third quarter.
Shortly after that, the Wonder Boys worked the ball inside the 10-yardline and had 1
st-and-goal from the SWOSU 9-yardline. A short rushing gain and two incompletions later, however, stalled the drive at the SWOSU 6-yardline. Seemingly undeterred by his recent outcomes on kicks, Zizumbo drilled the 23-yard field goal to tie the career record and pull Tech within two points, 21-19.
The game wore on into the fourth quarter with both defenses bending and not breaking.
With under 10 minutes left in the game, SWOSU had the ball and was threatening to score, but on 2
nd-and-10 from the Tech 25-yardline, a bad snap in shotgun by SWOSU resulted in a five-yard loss. The Wonder Boys defense then was able to force an incompletion on the next two pass attempts with the second turning the ball over on downs with 9:11 to play.
The Wonder Boys then went in time-chewing mode and were engineering a double-digit play drive that ate up nearly four and a half minutes of game clock, all as rain began to play a factor for the first time in the game.
Unfortunately, on the 10
th play of the drive and with the ball inside the 10-yardline, SWOSU put their helmet on the ball and forced a fumble that caused the ball to go shooting into the endzone where it was recovered by the Bulldogs for a touchback.
Back with possession and 4:46 remaining on the clock, the Bulldogs were looking to close out the Wonder Boys, who were down to just two timeouts left.
SWOSU would twice get no yards on a rushing attempt on first down at the start of the pivotal drive, but were able to pick up a first down through the air on the next play.
Now with 1
st-and-10 at the Tech 48-yardline and time dwindling, SWOSU had a solid six-yard gain on first down, promoting a Tech timeout with 2:05. On second down out of the timeout, SWOSU got a single yard to set up 3
rd-and-3 from the Tech 42-yardline.
Electing to save their timeout for a potential 4
th-down play, the Wonder Boys defense needed to make another short-yardage stop. And they did, stopping the Bulldogs a yard short of the first down and bringing the game to its potential final play, but first Tech used its final timeout to stop the game clock at 1:21.
With the game in the balance, the defense rose to the occasion one final time and won the trench battle to force SWOSU over on downs, and in the process, giving the Wonder Boys one more chance at a go-ahead score as the took over possession with 1:17 left, but no timeouts.
Starting the drive at their own 40-yardline, the Wonder Boys got the ball into SWOSU territory on two plays. Following a one-yard run and an incomplete pass, the Wonder Boys faced 3
rd-and-9 from the SWOSU 46-yardline.
Tech would convert the 3
rd-down in a major way as Grissom found
Mason Ross all alone in the zone defense for a 16-yard gain to the SWOSU 30-yardline. Ross was able to get out of bounds on the play to stop the clock with 22 seconds left.
Looking for a few more yards, to shorten the potential distance for a Zizumbo game-winning kick, the Wonder Boys went to the ground, but gained just two yards, and for first time seemingly all year long, the ball bounced the right way for the Wonder Boys as it was fumbled on the play, but the ball did not change possession as it went out of bounds.
With the clock still running, the Wonder Boys were able to quickly get to the line of scrimmage and clock the ball with just two seconds left on the clock.
Now the game hung in the balance of Zizumbo's right leg. Already having tied the career record, but with a miss field goal and extra point likely weighing on his mind, Zizumbo took the field for the potential walk-off game-winner.
With the deep snapper Garrett Scott positioned at the SWOSU 28-yardline and the holder Aaron Winn knelt down at the SWOSU 34-yardline, Zizumbo lined up for the pressure kick, but with timeouts to spare, SWOSU took one in hopes of freezing out Zizumbo.
Out of the timeout and with the wind in his favor to his back, Zizumbo drilled the ball toward the south endzone. With plenty of leg on the try, the only question would be if it would split the uprights.
As the ball traveled towards the goal post, it hit high on the right upright, but again, the ball would bounce the right way for the Wonder Boys as the carom dropped the ball inside the uprights for a successful made field goal by Zizumbo, winning the game for the Wonder Boys and giving him the career record in his final kick at home.
Once through, Zizumbo was mobbed by teammates as he, for the second-straight year, hit the game-winning field goal in walk-off fashion against SWOSU.
The Wonder Boys will now prepare to hit the road for their final two games of the season. The first of those will be this coming Saturday at Northwestern Oklahoma. Kick-off against the Rangers is scheduled for 6 p.m. in Alva.
