SHAWNEE – In a remarkable chain of events, Oklahoma Baptist went from desperately spending timeouts to taking a victory formation as the Bison claimed a 28-24 Homecoming victory over Southwestern Oklahoma State Saturday.
The Bison kept the faith and, as Coach Chris Jensen told his team after the game, "we moved that dadgum mountain!"
Southwestern Oklahoma State took a 24-21 lead with 6:36 remaining in the game and the Bulldogs defense forced the Bison to punt. Four straight Karltrell Henderson rushes gave Southwestern second and eight at the 35 and OBU was down to calling timeouts as the clock crept under three minutes.
Daniel Moniz eluded the offensive line and hit quarterback Casey Freeman, jarring the football loose and Bison linebacker Josh Arnold pounced on the fumble, giving OBU the ball with 2:30 remaining and 40 yards separating the Bison from pay-dirt.
On third and five, Isaiah Mallory spun free for a seven yard run to keep the drive moving.
Preston Haire passed to Cagney Roberson, who made an acrobatic catch and hit the ground at the four-yard line. On the next play, Frankie Edwards pivoted left and found the near corner of the end zone for a touchdown run and what turned out to be the game-winner.
Luke Wendl added his fourth PAT of the game with 57 seconds left for the 28-24 lead, but the Bison had one more demon to exorcise. The Bison took a lead late against SWOSU last season, only to lose on a Hail Mary as time expired.
Moniz again got to the quarterback and forced another fumble, but SWOSU collected this one to stave off the loss for a few seconds. After two incomplete passes, Freeman had been hit once more and called timeout with a painful right shoulder. Tyler Marr replaced him, and on fourth down Marr only temporarily eluded the Bison rush before Moniz and Dennis Nguyen collaborated on the sack.
The 14-yard loss put the ball back in OBU's hands for the victory formation.
The win ended a 15-game slide that had encapsulated the season until Saturday.
"The problem with the previous eight games, is there would always be a tremendous mountain in our way and we wouldn't overcome it," Jensen said. "Today we just pushed it out of the way."
OBU had big moments throughout the game to move that mountain stone by stone.
The Bison scored on their first possession, going 55 yards on nine plays. Haire and Roberson connected for gains of 19 and 12 yards to set up Emmanuel Adesokan's first career touchdown – an eight-yard scoring pass from Haire for a 7-0 lead with 11:21 left in the first quarter.
Landon Rowlett stopped Adrian Williams a couple of yards shy of a first down to force a SWOSU punt on the Bulldogs' first possession and the defense stopped SWOSU again at the Bison 30.
OBU marched 70 yards with Haire passes of 10 yards to Mallory and 13 to Reece Gilbert to help setup a 32-yard touchdown run by Mallory for a 14-0 lead with 11:35 remaining in the half.
Southwestern got on the board at the 5:45 mark and then tied the game with 28 seconds remaining in the half, 14-14.
Moniz ended Southwestern's initial second-half drive with a tackle for loss and OBU took over on their own 15 after a punt.
The Bison marched 85 yards on 11 plays, featuring a 23-yard Haire to Stephan Turner pass and a pass of 30 yards to Josh Pettijohn – both on third down plays. Another 10-yard pass to Turner got the ball to the SWOSU 25. The next three plays netted zero yards, but on fourth and 10, Haire rolled right, stopped and found Alex Lewis breaking open in the end zone. The pass was on target and the Bison had a 21-14 lead with 7:10 left in the third quarter.
Southwestern carried the ball down the field to the Bison one, but an illegal motion penalty moved the Bulldogs back to the six. A pass from Freeman was broken up by Jay Jordan in the end zone and Southwestern settled for a field goal to pull to within 21-17.
The Bulldogs took their first and only lead with 6:31 to go, getting 45 yards on Bison penalties, only to set up OBU's mountain transplant.
For the game, Haire finished 20 of 32 for 240 yards and two touchdowns. Turner led the Bison with six catches and 72 yards while Roberson added five for 62. Mallory had 78 yards on the ground on 15 carries (5.2 per carry) and added 32 yards in receptions.
Moniz ended with 2.5 tackles for loss and forced two fumbles to go with his five total tackles and one pass breakup. Myles Russell led OBU with 11 tackles with Rowlett and Lane Martin adding eight each.
The Bison head to Northwestern Oklahoma State Saturday.
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