GULF SOUTH CONFERENCE: Hardesty’s big day helps Reddies roll

— Henderson State’s playbook was conspicuously thin Saturday, but its quick-hit air attack still picked apart a beleaguered Ouachita Baptist secondary.

Nick Hardesty threw five touchdown passes, rolling up more than 400 yards passing for a second consecutive week, and the Reddies claimed a 35-26 victory, ending a two-year losing skid in the vitriol-filled Battle of The Ravine.

“I had to be smart with the ball,” said Hardesty, who completed 37 of 56 passes for 420 yards and 5 touchdowns. “We knew they were going to try and take that away from us today.”

The senior signal-caller found nine targets in the Henderson State receiving corps, including slot wideout Chris Evering on 8 completions for 115 yards and 2 touchdowns, on an array of underneath curl, crossing and out routes.

“They played a lot of drop coverage,” Reddies Coach Scott Maxfield said. “We took advantage of that. They didn’t really want to pressure us.”

Trailing 3-0, Henderson State (6-3, 5-2 Gulf South Conference) zipped 80 yards in a mere five plays on a 90-second scoring drive, ending when Hardesty hit Evering from 22 yards out to take a 7-3 lead with 8:59 left in the first quarter. It typified the day for the Reddies quarterback, who went 5 of 5 on the drive and completed his first seven passes for 99 yards.

“We were in total disarray the first half,” Ouachita Baptist Coach Todd Knight said. “They’ve been doing that all year. We should have been prepared. We looked at that all week, but it’s just what they did.”

Ouachita Baptist (5-3, 3-3) moved the football consistently throughout the day, outgaining their archrival directlyacross U.S. Highway 67 with 497 yards, but failed to convert inside the red zone.

Trying to slow the tempo, the Tigers racked up 233 yards rushing, led by Daniel Mc-Gee’s 156 yards on 23 carries and a 9-yard touchdown run that pulled Ouachita Baptist to within 14-10 at 5:27 in the second quarter.

With the loss, chances that the Tigers can navigate their way to the NCAA Division II playoffs are slim.

“There was so much riding on this for a shot to stay in the hunt” Knight said. “You don’t get in with three loses. You can say what you want to, but it’s hard to do. We kind of took that away. There’s a fine line in every game.”

That 79-yard drive was the lone bit of consistency. On three other drives, Ouachita Baptist settled for field goals, and quarterback Eli Cranor, who went 22 of 35 for 232 yards, didn’t find consistent accuracyuntil late in the fourth quarter when he led OBU on two touchdown drives to narrow the losing margin.

But the senior also hurled a costly interception early in the second half. Inside Henderson State’s 5, Cranor’s pass into triple coverage was picked off by Edward Heath, killing a 15-play, 66-yard drive that chewed up nearly seven minutes.

“We knew there was a chance that it could be high scoring,” Knight said of mistakes in scoring position. “We didn’t take advantage, and if we do all [the coverage issues] don’t matter.”

Four plays later, Hardesty hit receiver Josh Sipho, who finished with five catches and 96 yards, on a 41-yard post route to make it 28-10 with 4:34 left in the third quarter.The throw was one of the few vertical routes that Hardesty tried, preferring to dump screen passes to Jazz Scott, who had 11 catches for 77 yards and a touchdown, or to find tight end Sean McGrath.

It didn’t help either that Ouachita committed four personal foul penalties that extended Henderson State drives. Among those gaffes, a late hit penalty set up the Reddies inside the 20 yard line and allowed Hardesty to find Dairus Davis on an 8-yard touchdown pass to push the lead to 35-13 with 11:59 left.

“Teams are starting to do that in hopes we make a mistake,” Maxfield said.

“Well, we didn’t make many of those today.” SOUTHERN ARKANSAS 30, WEST ALABAMA 27

MAGNOLIA - Noe Cuevas kicked a 30-yard field goal in overtime as Southern Arkansas stunned West Alabama at Wilkins Stadium for its first victory of the season.

West Alabama (6-3, 4-2 Gulf South Conference) had the ball first to begin the overtime period. But Brock Sharp’s 39-yard field goal was wide left.

With two seconds left in regulation, Sharp lined up for a 27-yard field goal attempt, but the snap was mishandled and the game went to overtime.

It was the second consecutive year that the teams went to overtime, with SAU winning both times.

West Alabama quarterback Deon Williams passed for 222 yards and 2 touchdowns, but also threw 1 interception. He rushed for 68 yards.

With SAU trailing 27-20 in the fourth quarter, Rodney Brown hauled in a 56-yard pass from Tyler Sykora to force the third tie of the game at 27-27.

VALDOSTA STATE 21, ARKANSAS TECH 7

RUSSELLVILLE - Arkansas Tech couldn’t recover from two fourthquarter turnovers that led to 14 points that helped 10th-ranked Valdosta State survive and post a come-from-behind victory.

Arkansas Tech (3-6, 2-5 Gulf South Conference), which trailed 6-0 at halftime, took a 7-6 lead midway through the third quarter on a 4-yard touchdown pass from Rico Keller to Cassius Washington and the ensuing extra point by Cody Jones. The touchdown was set up by Antonio Charles’ 18-yard interception return.

Arkansas Tech’s Draper Demouchet muffed Jack Fulford’s punt at the Wonder Boys’ 12 and it was recovered at the 9 by Dominique Wheeler. One play later, Ronnye Nelson ran 9 yards for a touchdown to give the Blazers a 12-7 lead. Nelson then ran in for the two-point conversion to give the Blazers a 14-7 lead with 10:19 left in the game.

Steve Harden returned an interception 33 yards for a touchdown to increase Valdosta State’s lead to 21-7 with 1:37 left in the game. The interception return for a score was the third of the season by Harden and his second interception of the game.

HARDING 33, ARKANSAS-MONTICELLO 26

SEARCY - Harding managed to overcome five lost fumbles to beat Arkansas-Monticello at First Security Stadium on Saturday.

After trailing 10-7 in the first half, the Bisons (4-4, 2-4 Gulf South Conference) put together a 19-0 scoring run in the third quarter, which included a blocked punt that went out of the back of the end zone for a safety.

The Boll Weevils (3-6, 2-5) answered with a 5-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Scott Buisson to junior Greg Taylor with 7:48 left in the game, which was followed by a pass from Buisson to Steven Porter for the two-point conversion to cut the Boll Weevils’ deficit to 26-18.

Harding scored again two series later on a 9-yard pass from Powell to Braden Rubey for a 33-18 lead with 3:15 remaining.

The Boll Weevils drove down the field and scored on their next possession on a 12-yard touchdown pass from Buisson to Jywin Ceasar with 1:21 left.

Arkansas-Monticello’s onside kick attempt failed, allowing Harding to run out the remaining 1:16.

Sports, Pages 34 on 10/31/2010

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