Ouachita Baptist overwhelmed NAIA member Texas College with 28 unanswered points to begin the first quarter and never looked back, as the Tigers began their 2009 football campaign with a 52-6 rout of the Steers on the road at Chapel Hill High School in Tyler, Texas.
It was evident that the Tigers needed to start strong to begin the 2009 season, and did they ever. Ouachita, (1-0), displayed overall balance in dominating fashion to win their third-straight season opener. The victory moves their current winning streak to six games, which stretches back to the final stretch of the 2008 season.
Senior KJ Johnson rushed for 144 yards and two touchdowns on just 14 carries, to lead the attack for the Tigers. Johnson was part of a running combo that racked up 223 yards rushing, which was two yards less than the entire offensive total yardage for Texas College. The running back from Monroe, Louisiana started the scoring with an 11-yard off-tackle scoring blast that put the Tigers on top early in the first with 11:50 left.
Ouachita forced the Steers into a turnover on downs on their first drive of the game, and junior quarterback Eli Cranor connected with true freshman wide receiver Jaime Harris on his third completion of the game for a 66-yard touchdown strike. The connection was the first collegiate reception by Harris and with the extra point good by freshman Jason Fowler, the Tigers led 14-0 with 7:45 left in the first. It was also Cranor’s first touchdown pass of his collegiate career as a Tiger.
After the short drive, OBU put together a seven-play, 72-yard drive, ending with a 13-yard scoring pass from Cranor to sophomore tight end Phillip Supernaw for a 21-0 lead.
Texas College started their third drive on the 40 yard-line, while driving 15 yards in three-straight plays. Junior Chad Emmons then forced a fumble on Steers running back Jermaine Paul at the 37 yard-line, which was recovered by Gosnell native Tyler George.
After an incomplete pass by Cranor, Johnson burst through the middle of the defense for a 63-yard touchdown blast that gave the Tigers a 28-0 lead to end the first quarter.
Texas College answered immediately on their first play of the second quarter with a touchdown pass from X’Zavior Bloodsaw to Octavious Parks that totaled 56 yards. A missed two-point conversion attempt would make the score 28-6.
After two drives producing no points for the Tigers, Ouachita answered with an eight-play, 33-yard drive that began with four straight rushing attempts by Johnson. Cranor again finished off the drive with a five-yard touchdown throw to Supernaw for his second scoring strike of the day to stretch the lead to 35-6.
Ouachita followed the touchdown pass up with another stingy defensive effort that forced the Steers into a fourth-and-20 attempt, which ended with a rush for negative yardage and a turnover on downs at the Steers 10-yardline.
With just 1:49 left in the first half, Ouachita used two-straight rushes by freshman running back Kendall Council that resulted in a pair of five yard rushing gains, as the second ended in an untouched touchdown run between the tackles. Council scored his first collegiate touchdown and gave the Tigers a 42-6 lead going into halftime.
After six plays resulted in a punting attempt for Texas College, the deep snapper for the Steers snapped the football into the end zone over the punter’s head, as senior cornerback Adam Cooper recovered the fumble that produced a touchdown by the Tiger defense and a 49-6 lead.
After a pair of completions by backup junior quarterback Josh Langley, Fowler connected on a 28-yard field goal to give Ouachita a 52-6 lead to begin the fourth quarter. The field goal would be the only attempt of the day by the true freshman kicker. The Mesquite, Texas native was seven-for-seven on extra point attempts in his first game on the Division II level.
It was a balanced overall effort on the defensive side, as freshman linebacker Landon Freeman led the attack with four tackles, including three tackles for a loss and a sack for a loss of eight yards. Senior defensive end Jerry McNeil started his final campaign with two tackles and his first sack of the season. McNeil led the Gulf South Conference with 10 sacks in ’08. Coming up with a pair of interceptions were junior cornerback Desmond Smoot and freshman linebacker Augustine Ume-Ezeoke. All-GSC performer Bryan Church also recorded 3.5 tackles, including a quarterback hurry to lead the defense, which held Texas College to just 225 total yards of offense, compared to 428 yards by the Tigers. The Tiger defense held Texas College to -9 rushing yards on 33 attempts for the evening.
Cranor finished his first game as the full-time signal caller with a 12-for-19 effort for 146 yards and three touchdown passes. Harris was the primary recipient of the total yardage from Cranor, as the freshman totaled 106 yards on two receptions. Freshman running back Demarcus Collier of Prescott finished with 44 yards on nine carries, followed by freshman Kendall Council of Dumas, who totaled eight carries for 34 yards.
The Tigers will play their second straight road game in week two as Ouachita travels to Carrollton, Georgia to play West Georgia to open the 2009 GSC schedule. Ouachita defeated West Georgia 41-17 in 2008. OBU returns home on Sept. 19 to host Valdosta State for the home opener.
