ALVA, Okla. – The Arkansas Tech football team was dominant from the outset on the road at Northwestern Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon and cruised to a 44-21 win.
A big part of the dominant performance came on the defensive end as the Wonder Boys' defense was directly responsible for the first two touchdowns of the game. The first of those came in the form of a recovered fumble by
Israel Whitmore as Northwestern Oklahoma had a bad snap in their wildcat formation on their initial possession of the game.
Whitmore's recovery set Tech up at the NWOSU 45-yardline for the Wonder Boys' first offensive possession of the game. With plus field position, the Wonder Boys needed just five plays to find the endzone as former Ranger and current Tech quarterback
Ethan Everson connected with tight end
Dayton Keller from 11 yards out.
After possession turned back to NWOSU, the Wonder Boys quickly went up 14-0 as
Diego Sanchez had a 62-yard pick-six.
Leading by a pair of touchdowns with just under four minutes having been played, the Wonder Boys got the ball back with 9:33 in the first and proceeded to take the air out of the ball with a methodical 13-play drive that covered 72 yards and ate up over seven and a half minutes. Unfortunately, the Wonder Boys were forced to settle for 25-yard field goal to take a 17-0 lead. Overall, however, the drive was impressive as each play ahead of the field goal was a running play as the Wonder Boys began to establish their commitment to the run.
As the game carried over to the second quarter, the Rangers showed some signs of life and scored a pair of touchdowns about three minutes apart to suddenly pull within three points of the Wonder Boys.
Despite that surge, the Wonder Boys did not allow the Rangers to get any closer and on their next drive recaptured the momentum as the eight-play drive was capped by a thrilling 32-yard touchdown by
Luke Gall.
The Wonder Boys' defense then forced a three-and-out to give the ball back to their offense with 2:38 left in the half. Getting the ball to start the second half after winning the coin toss and electing to defer, the Wonder Boys would score once more right before the end of the half as Gall scored from 10 yards out with 28 seconds left.
Tech would then carry a 31-14 lead into the locker room.
Not long into that first offensive possession in the second half, the Wonder Boys added another touchdown to push their lead out to 38-14. This time it was
Myles West with a rushing touchdown from eight yards out.
Later in the third, Wonder Boys kicker
Christopher Baldazo connected the second of his three field goals of the game as he made good from 32 yards. Baldazo's third made field goal came with 4:36 in the fourth quarter and was from 33 yards away.
In-between Baldazo's final two field goals, Northwestern Oklahoma registered a touchdown.
The Wonder Boys will now return home and prepare for their Homecoming game against Southwestern Oklahoma. Kick-off from Simmons Bank Field at Thone Stadium is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 12.
