Ouachita held UAM’s quarterback Scott Buisson in check for the first half, but eventually turnovers helped Buisson and the Boll Weevils defeat the Tigers 44-24 Saturday at A.U. Williams Field.
Ouachita’s defense played well against Buisson who was averaging close to 400 total yards a game, and even turned in a 640-yard performance against Henderson State.
The Tigers only allowed two big plays from Buisson, one play action pass that went for 69 yards and one long run by the very fast Buisson that went for 46 yards.
Otherwise, coach Todd Knight was pleased wih the defense. “With six turnovers and some punts, that was a ton of times to defend a really good offense.”
The defensive line did an especially good job containing Buisson, with defensive tackle Brian Church getting an interception. Defensive end Jerry McNeil said the success came from “really working on the fundamentals all week during practice.”
Despite the big plays and the turnovers the Tigers were only down 13-10 at halftime, but some timely takeaways helped the Boll Weevils pull away in the second half. “We can play better and we will,” Knight said.
The turnovers gave the Boll Weevils a very short field to work with on multiple occasions. The silver lining according to Knight is the turnovers were not total team mistakes and they can be corrected.
Ouachita players are still playing well despite the last few losses.
Knight mentioned sophomores Terrence Garrett, Jamerson Tolbert and Nico Hobbs as players who according to Knight “really led the way.” He also mentioned seniors Bob Ruffing, Jerrad Nutt, Jimmy Pinkney and John Johnson as “guys who really brought their level of play up this week.”
Garrett forced a fumble in the first half of action with a hit on Buisson and Pinkney recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchdown.
Of the loss, Knight said, “it’s unacceptable, we know that. We got to have a winning attitude this week, and I think we do,” adding, “these guys respond there is no doubt in my mind.”
The Tigers will have to recover quickly as they travel to Searcy to take on the Harding University Bisons. Harding, just like UAM, has a great quarterback in David Knighton, who is averaging 361.5 yards passing a game.
Knighton, according to Knight, is more of a pocket passer, but is very elusive. Harding likes to pass the ball and passes 70-80 percent of the time. Their leading rusher only averages 34.2 yards a game.
“We will respect him in the sense that we won’t let him let him run off,” McNeil said. “We got to rush him because we know he does not like to run so we got to be in his face.” McNeil said.
The winner of this game gets the Traveling Trophy, “it’s a big deal,” Knight said. “[The Bisons] have the trophy now and we want to get it back.”
He says to look for the Tigers to be more productive on offense and punch the ball in the end zone, as well as for “the defense to continue the trend of containing great quarterbacks.”
“We are looking at it as a new season,” McNeil said. “Starting with Harding and going to Henderson.”
