RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – Held scoreless for the first three quarters of action at home on Saturday night against Southeastern Oklahoma, the Arkansas Tech football team scored a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter to come-from-behind and win, 14-10.
The turnaround was sparked by an interception by Tech's
Trey Howard on the first play of the fourth quarter. Prior to that, Southeastern Oklahoma had run seven plays at the end of the third quarter on a drive that started on their own 32-yardline. That drive started for the Savage Storm following an interception of their own deep in their territory.
At that point, Southeastern had a 10-0 lead over the Wonder Boys and were looking to add to it with the drive that leaked over into the fourth quarter. Fortunately for the Wonder Boys, however, that did not happen, and Howard's interception would be returned to the Southeastern 20-yardline. Two plays later, the Wonder Boys were on the scoreboard on a 19-yard pass from
Jack Dawson to
Gavin Waits.
With a sudden shot of momentum, the Wonder Boys forced Southeastern to a three-and-out. Tech was unable to do anything with their subsequent drive and gave the ball back to the Savage Storm with 10:28 left.
Southeastern would connect on a big pass play on 3
rd-and-8 from their own 22-yardline to position themselves in scoring range at the Tech 36-yardline. Three plays ffter that 42-yard pass play, the Savage Storm faced 4
th-and-5 from the Tech 31-yardline and elected to go for it. The Wonder Boys' defense was up to the task and stopped them short of the line-to-gain on a completed pass, forcing a turnover on downs with 7:04 left.
Looking to work down the field while draining some clock, the Wonder Boys went with four-straight run plays with the first three being direct snaps to the running back out of a wildcat formation. Tech would gain 20 yards out of those plays and got the ball near midfield. After those four run plays, the Wonder Boys took to the air and Dawson connected for a 46-yard pass to
Scout Brazeal, bringing the ball down to the Southeastern 3-yardline.
It would take three running plays, but the Wonder Boys were able to cash in the opportunity on a one-yard plunge by reserve quarterback,
Dominic Feliciano. With a good extra point by
Logan Tymeson, the Wonder Boys led 14-10 with just over three minutes left in regulation.
Now it was up to the Wonder Boys' defense to make one more stop.
Starting their ensuing drive at their own 28-yardline, Southeastern was able to get the ball into Wonder Boys territory at the Tech 47-yardline by the two-minute timeout. With just under a minute to go, the Savage Storm were in the redzone at the Tech 18-yardline where it was 1
st-and-10.
After a two-yard scramble by quarterback Colton Howard, the Savage Storm took two passing shots into the endzone, but both were incomplete, making it 4
th-and-8 from the Tech 16-yardline. Once Southeastern was lined up for the play, the Wonder Boys used their first timeout of the second half to set their defense.
It proved to be a great timeout call as the Savage Storm once more were incomplete on a pass in the endzone, turning the ball over on downs with 36 seconds left. With Southeastern having exhausted their timeouts, the Wonder Boys were able to get into victory formation and needed one kneel down to seal the win.
The Wonder Boys will now prepare to hit the road this coming Saturday as they will be at East Central. That game is scheduled for a 2 p.m. kick-off from Koi-Ishto Stadium in Ada.
