ARKADELPHIA — Henderson State’s first offensive drive of the season ended with a punt from its own territory that followed one first down in four plays.
After that, though, just about everything went right for the Reddies’ top offense in their season-opener against Southern Nazarene on Wednesday night.
Sophomore quarterback Kevin Rodgers threw three touchdown passes to three different receivers in the first quarter and threw for another score in the third as Henderson State, the preseason Great American Conference favorite, cruised to a 63-21 victory over the Crimson Storm at Carpenter-Haygood Stadium.
Even a sudden schedule change Monday that moved the game from Thursday to Wednesday to avoid heavy rains from Tropical Storm Isaac couldn’t throw off the Reddies (1-0), who scored on five of six drives after the initial punt, rolled up 564 yards and scored their most points in a game since 2006 and the second most since 1934.
“Coach said ‘Don’t go out there bull-jiving, just go out there and play,’ ” senior wide receiver Robert Jordan said. “That’s what we did.”
Jordan, the team’s leading returning receiver from last year, was a large part of the Reddies’ taking a 35-0 lead into halftime over the Crimson Storm, who went 9-3 and reached the NAIA playoffs a year ago but were breaking in a new quarterback to run their Spread system.
Jordan’s 40-yard touchdown catch gave Henderson State a 21-0 lead in the first quarter after Rodgers threw touchdowns to Labroderick Barnett and Dustin Holland.
Jordan also scored on the Reddies’ first play of the second half when Rodgers found him over the middle from 25 yards out one play after Denszell Brown recovered a fumble by Southern Nazarene quarterback Dylan Terry.
Jordan finished with 8 catches for 128 yards and 2 touchdowns and returned 4 punts for 60 yards.
Rodgers, who started five games as a freshman a year ago, played through three quarters and completed 22 of 30 passes for 360 yards with 4 touchdowns and 1 interception.
Barnett added 3 catches for 100 yards, and 10 receivers caught passes.
“Things were definitely clicking, which is a good sign of things to come,” Rodgers said. “We definitely saw room for improvement, so we can keep building from here.”
The Reddies added 180 yards rushing, most of which came from Ryan McDonald’s 98 yards on 7 carries. His 40-yard burst up the middle with 5:34 left in the game gave the Reddies a 63-14 lead. Jarvis Smith gained 44 yards on 10 carries with a touchdown, and Kevin Nichols added two rushing touchdowns.
All told, it was about as good of a first-week performance as Coach Scott Maxfield could have hoped for from an offense that relies on a steady rhythm between quarterback and receivers.
“Timing was pretty good,” Maxfield said. “It wasn’t perfect, but I thought for a first game we executed pretty well the first half.”
Even with 14 penalties — 12 for being offsides — for 85 yards, the Reddies had held the Crimson Storm (0-1) scoreless with less than nine minutes remaining.
At a glance
GREAT AMERICAN CONFERENCE
WEDNESDAY’S GAMES
Henderson State 63, Southern Nazarene 21 Ouachita Baptist 55, NW Oklahoma State 3
FRIDAY’S GAMES All times Central
SW Oklahoma St. at Stephen F. Austin, 6 p.m. East Central (Okla.) at NW Missouri St., 7 p.m.
SATURDAY’S GAMES
Shepherd Tech at Ark.-Monticello, 6 p.m. Bacone College at Arkansas Tech, 6 p.m. SE Okla. St. at TAMU-Commerce, 6 p.m.
Sports, Pages 21 on 08/30/2012