SEARCY — Harding couldn’t avoid all the defensive talent East Central (Okla.) had Saturday night, so the Bisons didn’t.
The result: A second half in which Harding scored on five consecutive drives, twice on Kelvin Martin option keepers, for the game’s final 24 points to cap a 31-14 victory at First Security Stadium to improve to 4-0 for the first time since 2002.
“The best thing to do against good players is run right at them,” said Martin, who scored on touchdown runs of 5, 5 and 15 yards. “And that’s exactly what we did.”
Harding didn’t have much success with Armonty Bryant, the Tigers’ star defensive end who finished with 11 tackles and 2 sacks while also forcing and recovering a fumble.
But Martin’s keepers up the middle on midline option plays, hand offs to Romo Westbrook up the middle and pitches to Ty Finley around the edge never were slowed down by East Central’s other All-Great American Conference players - defensive tackle Erik Howell or linebackers Jason Catchings, Amos Cherry and Tyler McGrew.
Martin finished with 117 yards rushing on 24 carries, Westbrook had 92 yards on 18 carries and Finley had 84 yards on 5 sweeps.
Harding, the top rushing team in NCAA Division II, finished with 381 yards rushing and out gained East Central 309-14 in the second half.
“We had to just keep hammering with the plays we felt comfortable with,” Harding Coach Ronnie Huckeba said. “If we just wouldn’t turn the ball over, we knew we would have a chance to win the ballgame. So we were just patient.”
Harding (4-0, 2-0 GAC)fumbled three times and lost two in the first half, but also had two others that were negated because of penalties.
That’s why Huckeba wasn’t too worried even with his team trailing 14-7 at halftime, because he knew his defense had nothing to do with it.
“When you’re as good on defense as we are, you can take a little time to figure them out,” he said.
East Central (2-3, 1-2) took a 7-0 lead when Bryant tipped an option pitch by Martin, and Qumain Black scooped it up and returned it 35 yards untouched for a score.
Then, after Harding tied it at 7-7 on a 5-yard Martin run, Brad Davis returned the kickoff 75 yards to the Harding 20. East Central needed six plays to score, with Spencer Bond jumping over the pile for a 1-yard run to make it 14-7.
East Central struggled to do much after that. Bond, a freshman who was making his second start, had minus-2 yards passing at halftime and finished 4 of 12 for 20 yards and the Tigers had 84 yards as a team.
“We kept it too limited tonight, I felt,” Tigers Coach Tim McCarty said. “I didn’t want to put our defense in a bad position with turnovers. Because they’re such a good ball control offense.”
Harding, which had four sacks and 12 tackles behind the line of scrimmage, forced East Central to punt five times in the second half and defensive end Ty Powell, who had 2 1/2 sacks, recovered a fumble.
In between, John Gay kicked field goals of 33, 20 and 33 yards, while Martin scored on two other drives. The only time Harding didn’t score was when backup quarterback Keenan Kallett ran out the clock on the final series.
OUACHITA BAPTIST 27, SE OKLAHOMA ST. 24
DURANT, Okla. - Ty Towers completed 13 of 23 passes for 187 yards and 2 touchdowns to lead Ouachita Baptist (4-0, 2-0) to a victory over Southeastern Oklahoma State.
Towers threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to running back Chris Rycraw to give Ouachita Baptist a 27-24 lead with 9:44 remaining.
ARKANSAS TECH 41, NW OKLAHOMA STATE 20
RUSSELLVILLE - Tanner Marsh passed for 260 yards with 2 touchdowns and rushed for 86 more and 2 more scores to help Arkansas Tech (2-3) snap its three-game losing streak.
SOUTHERN ARKANSAS 30, ARKANSAS-MONTICELLO 14
MONTICELLO - Southern Arkansas (4-0, 3-0) scored the game’s final 23 points to move to 4-0 for the first time since moving to NCAA Division II in 1997.
Tyler Sykora threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Brooks White in the third quarter and Mark Johnson rushed for two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to put away the Boll Weevils (1-4, 0-3).
Johnson rushed for 203 yards on 29 carries and Sykora completed 19 of 34 passes for 354 yards and 2 touchdowns.
HENDERSON STATE 50, SW OKLAHOMA STATE 22
WEATHERFORD, Okla. - Henderson State (5-0, 3-0) scored 35 consecutive points in the second and third quarters to stay unbeaten.
Kevin Rodgers completed 19 of 31 passes for 241 yards and 4 touchdowns while Kevin Nichols had 106 yards rushing, Jarvis Smith added 79 and Henderson State had 210 yards rushing as a team.
Sports, Pages 31 on 09/30/2012