It is hard to say who made the biggest play in the Harding Bisons’ 36-33 victory at Ouachita Baptist on Saturday, but Donatella Luckett certainly gets a mention.
The junior receiver turned a slant pass from Keenan Kellett into a 74-yard touchdown play with 1:12 left in the game as Harding (5-1, 5-1) handed Ouachita Baptist its first loss. The big play came after the Tigers’ Benson Jordan hit Ryan Perkins on a 6-yard touchdown pass for the 33-30 lead with 1:56 left.
“They get the late score and we’re thinking ‘Okay, we got to get down there in two minutes,’ ” Harding Coach Ronnie Huckeba said. “We did have our timeouts. The slant to Donatella was well thrown and that guy is pretty dynamic with the ball in the hands and that’s why we’ve got him at wide receiver.”
But Huckeba had to praise his defense, too. On seven trips inside the Harding 20, Ouachita Baptist (5-1, 5-1) was only able to score two touchdowns.
“We had our back to the wall several times, defense played great in the red zone,” Huckeba said. “They big-played us in the first half. We couldn’t get anything going offensively.
They did a really good job defensively.
They had a really good plan against us. They threw a bunch of different looks at us, a bunch of different looks. It took us awhile to sort them out.”
Failed extra points also loomed large. The Bisons’ attempt failed after their final touchdown and it took an interception by Ashton Williams to prevent a possible, tying field goal.
However, Huckeba pointed out, thanks to yet another big defensive play earlier, Ouachita Baptist would not have been driving for a winning field goal.
Harding’s Darius Lane intercepted a conversion pass attempt and returned it 100 yards for the two-point defensive conversion to pull the Bisons within 26-23 with 2:10 left in the third quarter.
“That was a huge play,” Huckeba said. “Because it affected - there they would have gone for a field goal to win the football game and that means the score differential was in our favor for most of the fourth quarter.” Safe at home
Arkansas-Monticello’s 41-27 nonconference victory over Lindenwood-Belleville at Cotton Boll Stadium onSaturday kept the Boll Weevils (4-3) perfect at home as they began a three game homestand.
Next up for the Boll Weevils is winless Southern Nazarene, Arkansas-Monticello’s homecoming opponent.
Crunching numbers
Southern Arkansas piled up some milestones along with the offense in its 66-17 victory over Southern Nazarene on Saturday.
The Muleriders (4-3, 4-3) had their second-highest, single-game points total in the modern era, and the most points since 1998 when they beat West Alabama 58-13. The 66 points also gave the Muleriders their third game with 50 or more points this year, a single season team record.
Southern Arkansas is 27-1 when it has scored 50 or more points and is 4-1 in 50-point games since last season.
Cutting losses
No. 5 Henderson State used 556 yards of total offense to roll past Arkansas Tech, 45-14, in the Boomtown Classic in El Dorado.
Junior Kevin Rodgers had 300 or more yards passing for the 15th time in his career. He was 19 of 31 for 358 yards and 3 touchdowns as the Reddies (7-0, 6-0) became the last undefeated team in the state thanks to Arkadelphia neighbor Ouachita Baptist’s loss to Harding.
Henderson State wide receiver Darius Davis had a career best 156 yards on 4 catches, with touchdown receptions of 45 and 83 yards.
Players of the week
Harding’s Phillip Mion had two interceptions, both inside the Harding 20, as the Bisons handed Ouachita Baptist its first loss, 36-33 on Saturday.
Mion, the defensive player of the week, picked off a pass in the end zone in the third quarter as the Bisons denied the Tigers five times on seven trips inside the Harding 20. His second interception and 11-yard return came with 34 seconds left in the third quarter.
It was the first time a Harding player had two interceptions in a game since Terrence Davis had two against Arkansas-Monticello in 2010.
Turnovers loomed large throughout the game as each team committed four, with Ouachita Baptist throwing three interceptions. Ashton Williams grabbed the Bisons’ third interception with 34 seconds left to seal the victory.
“We turned it over and they did too fortunately,” Bisons Coach Ronnie Huckeba said. “I don’t know what the final tally was but we turned it over way too much. Credit our defense with forcing and coming up with some huge turnovers, especially in the second half.”
East Central Oklahoma’s Caleb Holley was offensive player of the week for his 224 receiving yards in a victory against Northwestern Oklahoma State and Southwestern Oklahoma State’s Terrance Franklin won the special teams award for three returns totaling 193 yards, including a 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the victory over Southeastern Oklahoma.
Todd Traub is a special contributor who covers the Great American Conference for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
OCT.19 Harding 36, Ouachita Baptist 33 Southern Arkansas 66, Southern Nazarene 17 East Central (Okla.) 64, NW Oklahoma State 14 Ark.-Monticello 41, Lindenwood-Belleville 27 Henderson State 45, Arkansas Tech 14 SATURDAY’S GAMES All times Central Henderson State at Harding, 2 p.m.
Southern Nazarene at Ark.-Monticello, 3 p.m.
Ouachita Baptist at Arkansas Tech, 3 p.m.
SE Okla. St. at Northwestern (Okla.) St., 3 p.m.
East Central at Southwestern Oklahoma State, 6 p.m.
Sports, Pages 23 on 10/25/2013