PHOTO | Tara Espinoza
The Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys football team celebrated homecoming with their game Saturday against the SAU Muleriders. However, the celebration was short-lived as Tech quickly fell behind 14-0 in the opening quarter.
Tech quarterback Jack Grissom found running back Keon Simmons for a 19yd touchdown to get the Wonder Boys on the board. Southern Arkansas continued to flex the offense, outscoring Tech in the second quarter 21-3 and extending their lead to 25 at halftime. Tech could not close the gap in the 3rd quarter, trailing 49-25.
In the fourth quarter, Tech found the end zone one more time and successfully got the 2-point conversion to make it 49-33; the inclement weather moved in and delayed the game for more than 2 hours. The teams returned to play for around 5 minutes of game time. Another delay followed an hour before the game was officially called due to no available window to continue. SAU won the game by the final score of 49-33.
Grissom went 18-26 for 133 yards and 1 touchdown. The rushing attack continued to be firm with 276 yards on the ground and 3 total touchdowns.
Tech defense struggled to defend the pass and run, giving up 245 through the air and an overwhelming 335 yards on the ground. The rushing number will need to improve by next week’s game, as they also gave up 6 rushing touchdowns.
Tech is now 3-4 on the season and will travel to Arkadelphia to take on Henderson State Reddies. The Reddies enter Saturday’s game at 5-2 on the year with a 15-14 win over No. 12 Harding and convincing wins over Northwestern Oklahoma and Southwestern Oklahoma. There are also a couple of head-scratching losses to Southern Arkansas and East Central. Kick-off is at 2 p.mat Carpenter-Haygood Stadium.
