BETHANY, Okla. – Behind a stout defensive effort and an explosive passing game, the Arkansas Tech football team improved to 2-0 on the season as they picked up a 26-6 win on the road at Southern Nazarene on Saturday evening. It is the first time since 2017 that the Wonder Boys have started the year 2-0.
Saturday's game started off slow offensively for both the Wonder Boys and Crimson Storm as they combined for five punts and just four first downs through a scoreless first quarter of action. Not long into the second quarter, however, the Wonder Boys were able to get on the scoreboard as
Christopher Baldazo connected on a 31-yard field goal attempt. Southern Nazarene would answer that field goal with one of their own on the ensuing possession.
After forcing the Wonder Boys to go three-and-out on their next possession, the Crimson Storm took the lead, 6-3, with a 25-yard field goal. While that field goal did give the Crimson Storm the lead, it was a tremendous stand by the Wonder Boys defense to just allow the three points as SNU had a 1
st-and-goal from the Tech 7-yardline after 45-yard pass competition.
Defending 1
st-and-goal, the Wonder Boys would register consecutive tackles for loss from
Caleb Arnold and
Cam'Ron Holmes and allowed just a yard gained on third-down.
Getting the ball back with 2:25 left in the first half, the Wonder Boys offense was looking for a spark and got a major one in the form of a 72-yard passing touchdown from
Ethan Everson to
Caleb Tanis. It was the first passing TD of the season for Everson and the second for Tanis.
SNU and Tech would trade punts over the final 1:51 of the first half, sending action to the break with Tech leading 7-6.
In the second half, the Wonder Boys put the clamps down defensively while the passing game got into rhythm.
The first instance of the defense bowing up was on their first time on the field in the second half as they were forced to defend a short field after the Crimson Storm were able to recover a fumble and return it deep into Tech territory at the Tech 8-yardline. A personal foul penalty was assessed against SNU on that fumble return and pushed their drive start back to the Tech 23-yardline.
From there, the Wonder Boys allowed SNU to gain just six yards and forced a turnover on downs as the Crimson Storm failed to convert on a 4th-and-goal from the Tech 17-yardline.
The Wonder Boys then embarked on a 10-play, 83-yard touchdown drive that fully swung the momentum in their favor. The final play of that drive was a 20-yard touchdown pass from Everson to
Jared Long.
Near the end of the third quarter, the Wonder Boys forced another turnover on downs with Southern Nazarene at the Tech 27-yardline. That led to another Tech scoring drive that featured a lot of success through the air and carried the game to the fourth quarter.
On that drive, Everson had three pass completions of 14 or more yards with the biggest of those being an acrobatic snag by Long that resulted in a 43-yard connection. Two plays later, Everson tossed his third TD of the game as the found
Joyrion Chase in the endzone from 14 yards out. The extra-point attempt was blocked, but the Wonder Boys still led by three scores, 23-6.
Later in the fourth quarter, the Wonder Boys would have one more scoring drive after
CJ Palmer set the offense up with great field position following his third interception of the year. Getting the ball at the SNU 20-yardline with just under four minutes left, the Wonder Boys were equally as interested in draining as much clock as they could while also scoring.
They were able to achieve both as the game clock dwindled to just 48 seconds before Baldazo drilled a 20-yard chip-shot field goal, pushing the score to its final of 26-6.
The Wonder Boys will now remain on the road and face a tough in-state test as they will take on nationally-ranked Henderson State on Saturday, September 21. Kick-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. in Arkadelphia.
