Any high school or college coach will tell you that the most important part of Homecoming is the football game. Last week at Ouachita, it was no different. To be fair, the Tunes shows were phenomenal, and the pre-game food was delicious. It was nice to see so many alumni walking around campus allowing us students to catch a glimpse of what it means to be a tiger for life. All of the excitement leading up to these events, however, paled in comparison to the excitement of the football game.
The Tigers were coming off of a gut-wrenching loss to Arkansas Tech. Injuries abounded across the football team. It would have been easy for the Tigers to give up and decide that this just wasn’t their year. However, the Tigers knew that they could not do that. They still had half a season ahead of them, beginning with one of the most important games: Homecoming. Head coach Todd Knight said that the approach to this game was just like any other.
“When you play 11 games in a season, you cannot make one game more special than the others,” Knight said.
The team entered the field to the excitement of cheering students and alumni, all of whom were anxious to see their team win. The first half went well for the Tigers, but they were down 24-17 at halftime. They knew they needed to make a comeback in the second half to put their season back on a winning trajectory. The comeback looked dubious, however, in the third quarter when star running back Kris Oliver went down with an injury, but true freshman Shun’cee Thomas stepped up big for the Tigers in Oliver’s absence. Thomas led Ouachita’s rushing attack and put in a touchdown when the game went into overtime.
Ouachita kept the game close up until the last minute. With a Lucas Reed pass to LaDarius McElroy, the Tigers had the ball on the SAU 32-yard line with only two seconds remaining. Ouachita trailed by only three points. Kicker Cole Antley was ready to make the 49-yard field goal to send the game into overtime. As Antley prepared for the kick, he went through his normal routine.
“On third down, I run to the bench and take a tiny squirt of water. I run out there to kick it,” Antley said. “I take three steps back. I line the ball up. I take two steps over. I give a nod to my holder. They snap it, and we kick it.”
Right as Cole was going to take his kick, SAU called a timeout.
“They called a timeout to ice me. Right when they did that, a calm came over me,” Antley said.
ntley lined once again to take his kick, and, with a newfound tranquility, Antley kicked the ball straight through the uprights.
“As a kicker, you can’t really be thinking. When I get out there on the field, I remember one thing, and I remember my last few steps when I get off the field,” Antley said. “I don’t remember the kick hardly. I just block everything out. I don’t hear anything. I don’t think anything.”
Antley went on to make two more field goals in overtime, including the game-winner. It was the first game-winning field goal of Antley’s Ouachita career.
“It was awesome. Everybody was super pumped. It’s something I’ve dreamed of for a long time, and that’s something we dream of as kickers,” Antley said about the field goal.
And it was a great time for Antley to make that game-winning score. His three field goals were the culmination of a great team effort. The Tigers had 11 players injured, including the starting quarterback and leading wide receiver. Then, as the game went on, more players went out due to injury. However, the Tigers continued to fight. The entire team made a great effort to put Antley in the position to make those field goals. The effort that the players put into the game excited the entirety of Tiger Nation.
“I’ll remember that game for the rest of my life because we had so many people out, but we fought back,” Knight said. “We were mentally tough, and we got the win.”
Homecoming Queen Abby Root was another joyful Tiger fan.
“I was so excited. It’s always a good feeling whenever you win, but it’s even better that they had to fight really hard and still came out on top,” Root said.
– Caleb Byrd, Sports Writer
