Sports

OFFENSE OPENS UP, DEFENSE CAN’T STOP REDDIES

By Sean Saunders/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Sunday, September 20, 2009 12:54 AM CDT

ARKADELPHIA — It was a tale of two halves at Carpenter-Haygood Stadium as the Arkansas-Monticello Boll Weevils fell to the Henderson State Reddies on Saturday 35-33.

Henderson State quarterback Nick Hardesty goes airborn as Arkansas-Monticello's Carlton Johnson gets a hand on Hardesty and brings him down during the first half Saturday evening in Arkadelphi. Henderson State defeated UAM 35-33. Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald.

During the first half, the defenses kept the opposing offenses at bay. But in the second half, the offenses ran wild to the tune of 228 yards for Henderson and 300 yards for UAM.

“I thought it was definitely a tale of two halves,” UAM coach Gwaine Mathews said. “I thought our defense did a good job on them in the first half, but we just couldn’t stop anybody in the second. … I’m going to tell you what, we’re going to be a really good football (team) the second half of this season.”

Henderson (1-3, 1-1 Gulf South Conference) got a shot in the arm at halftime by the return of suspended running back Stefon Ceaser. Ceaser helped boost the Reddies to 299 rushing yards by carrying the ball 9 times for 71 yards.

“We knew coming in that we had to be pretty basic to protect our quarterbacks,” Henderson coach Scott Maxfield said. “We thought that they would try to bring a lot of pressure at our quarterbacks if we went to a lot of spread formations, so we just went big on them and pounded it, and it worked well in the second half.”

Henderson’s Kenard Springer ran wild all night long. Springer had 127 yards, his first career 100-yard performance on 19 carries and found the end zone with 22 seconds left in the first half to give the Reddies a 14-9 halftime lead.

UAM’s offensive surge in the second half was a result of its ability to run the football. Junior running back Johnny Polite had his top rushing performance of the season, churning out 96 yards, 66 of which came in the second half, on 15 carries.

“Like I’ve said before, we’re a lot better football team when we can run the ball,” Mathews said. “We just got to do a better job of putting things together for four quarters. We’ve got way too many inconsistencies.”

Polite’s legs opened things up for the Weevils (1-3, 0-1) in the passing game. Quarterback Scott Buisson was 19-of-29 for 280 yards, and three of his touchdown tosses came in the final 30 minutes.

But Henderson was just as unstoppable. After UAM cut the deficit to two with a Buisson hookup to Jaleel Harris with 4:25 remaining in the game, the Weevils would never see the ball again. Henderson faced a fourth-and-1 at the UAM 17-yard line with 1:29 to go when quarterback Nick Hardesty picked up the first down with a 2-yard run to put away the win.

“I think our defense just got worn down out there,” Mathews said. “They weren’t exploding off the ball like they were in the first half.”

Henderson had to settle on a quarterback after rotating between Hardesty and redshirt freshman Nathan Nall, who started the game. But after Nall threw an interception to Marcus VanBuren that was returned 56 yards in the second quarter, Nall appeared for one more series before Hardesty directed the offense for the remainder of the game.

“He’s a little bit more experienced of a guy, runs a little better,” Maxfield said. “He adds another dimension to what we do. He did a good job when he was in there, and we felt that he gave us another option for running the football.”

Both defenses were doing their best to keep their respective teams in the game in the first half. UAM gave up 179 yards in the first half, but forced a pair of turnovers to limit the damage to only seven points on the scoreboard. Henderson gave up only 116 yards in the first half, and its defense put up the first points of the game when Taylor Stone picked off a Buisson pass and raced it 22 yards down the middle of the field for a touchdown.

“It hurt, but I knew I had to come back and step up and come back to where we would have had a chance to win,” Buisson said.

The Weevils responded with a 43-yard field goal on the next drive to finally get on the board with slightly more than eight minutes remaining in the first half. But UAM’s special teams was a mixed bag in the first 30 minutes. Joe Lamoureux connected on only one of his three field goal attempts, but he had what appeared to be a momentum shifter when he kicked a perfect onside kick that was recovered by UAM’s Keith Brown.

The Weevils took the lead on the very next play when Buisson found Joseph Lockwood for his first of two touchdown receptions that went for 37 yards. Lockwood led all receivers with five catches for 88 yards.

But following VanBuren’s interception, Lamoureux missed his second field goal. Though UAM had three possessions within five minutes, it only came away with nine points. Then the Weevils gave their second touchdown inside the final minute of the first half for the second time in as many weeks.

After the UAM-Henderson contest had to be moved to Arkadelphia because of structural damages to the light poles at Convoy Leslie-Cotton Boll Stadium, the Weevils remain on the road next week when they play the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys.

HENDERSON STATE 35, ARKANSAS-MONTICELLO 33

Henderson 0 14 14 7 — 35

UAM 0 9 10 14 — 33

SCORING SUMMARY

SECOND QUARTER

HSU — Stone 22 interception return (Allan kick), 12:39.

UAM — Lamoureux 43 field goal, 8:02.

UAM — Lockwood 37 pass from Buisson (kick failed), 7:52.

HSU — Springer 10 run (Allan kick), :22.

THIRD QUARTER

UAM — Spann 14 pass from Buisson (Lamoureux kick), 11:56.

HSU — Anderson fumble recovery (Allan kick), 9:06.

UAM — Lamoureux 28 field goal, 4:15.

HSU — Hardesty 5 run (Allan kick), :12.

FOURTH QUARTER

UAM — Lockwood 19 pass from Buisson (Lamoureux kick), 11:38.

HSU — Lewis 66 pass from Hardesty (Allan kick), 9:56.

UAM — Harris 48 pass from Buisson (Lamoureux kick),

STATISTICAL LEADERS

RUSHING: Henderson, Springer 19-127, Jamison 17-83, Ceaser 9-70; UAM,

Polite 15-96, Buisson 18-24, Garrison 2-10.

PASSING: Henderson, Hardesty 5-7-0-100, Nall 2-5-1-8; UAM, Buisson

19-29-1-280.

RECEIVING: Henderson, Lewis 1-66, Buse 1-19, Evering 2-9; UAM, Lockwood 5-88, Harris 2-81, Spann 2-30.

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