RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech football team got back into the win column on Saturday night at home against Southern Arkansas with a 37-27 win. The victory snapped a four-game losing skid and gave the Wonder Boys their first win against SAU since 2017 when Tech won at home 28-21.
In the game, the Wonder Boys committed to the run and rushed for 370 yards on 47 carries, averaging 7.9 yards a tote.
Tracy Daniels was the bell cow for the rushing attack for a second-straight game, running for 142 yards on 17 carries. He would also find the endzone twice.
Over the last two games, Daniels has rushed for 317 yards and six touchdowns.
Daniels' first rushing score of the game came early in the second half and put Tech up 27-14. His second effectively put the game away as the Wonder Boys went up 37-27 with 59 seconds left on the clock.
Prior to Daniels' icing the game for Tech, the Wonder Boys had raced out to a 20-0 lead against SAU through early action in the second quarter. The Muleriders, however, would make it very much a game and fought back to tie the score at 27-all with 12:50 left in the fourth quarter.
After that tying score, the Wonder Boys and Muleriders traded punts, giving Tech possession back with 8:45 left on the clock.
On the fourth play of that drive, Daniels broke free up the middle for a 27-yard run that brought the ball inside the SAU 10-yardline with 6:36 left. Unfortunately, the drive stalled from there and the Wonder Boys set up for a go-ahead 23-yard field goal attempt by
Fernando Ventura.
Ventura made the kick to push him to 3-for-3 for the game, having previously making a pair of field goals earlier in the game, from 22 yards and 38 yards out.
After that kick from Ventura, the Wonder Boys' defense turned in its most important series of the game. After an initial five-yard loss on the first play went 15 yards further back due to a personal foul by SAU, the Muleriders faced 3
rd-and-27 from their own 13 yardline. SAU then had a 26-yard pass play to make it 4
th-and-1 from their own 39-yardline.
The Muleriders went for it on fourth down hoping to extend the drive, but the Wonder Boys' defense came up with a tackle for loss to force a turnover on downs.
Working with a short field and 3:10 left on the clock, the Wonder Boys got a clutch first down right in front of the 2-minute timeout and had the ball 1
st-and-10 from the SAU 24-yardline. Two plays later was Daniels' second rushing touchdown. SAU would get the ball into Tech territory on their final drive, but no points came out of it.
The Wonder Boys will now prepare for a road game at nationally-ranked Henderson State next Saturday. Kick-off from Arkadelphia is scheduled for 1 p.m.
