Alva Review-Courier -

SEARCY, Ark. – SWOSU Football turned the ball over six times on Saturday including a pair of costly turnovers near the end zone that led to a pair of goal line-to-goal line scores for Harding, as the Bisons shutout the Bulldogs 42-0.

The Bulldogs started the game trailing 4-0 after two safeties on their first two offensive drives. After a punt pinned the SWOSU offense back to their own three-yard line, a third-down sack in the end zone got Harding's dominant defensive day started. On the following possession, a snap mishap on a fourth-down punt attempt forced Dalton Jackson have to fall on the ball in the end zone and take another safety.

Knocking on the door with a little more than two minutes before the end of the first quarter, SWOSU was looking like it was going to take its first lead of the game. Karltrell Henderson took a handoff on second down and goal to go when he attempted to get across the goal line, but fumbled when he made contact with a HU defender allowing the ball to spew out onto the turf. Harding's Dra Smith scooped the loose ball up and returned it 96 yards to the house, extending the Bisons lead to 11-0 to conclude the first quarter of scoring.

In the second quarter, HU's offense finally was able to get in the end zone with a pair of touchdowns. The final Bisons score of the half came after Casey Freeman was sacked and fumbled the ball which HU recovered. Two plays later, they turned the turnover into six points and made the score 25-0 – the score that would hold going into the locker room for halftime.

Harding tacked on a field goal in the third quarter and extended their lead to 28-0 entering the fourth. In the final 15 minutes of play, HU scored on a sustained drive of 10 plays in the early going and then returned a pick-six nearly 100 yards on defense late in the quarter for their two scores.

The Bulldogs had an opportunity to avoid the shutout prior to the pick six, going on a 10-play drive themselves that started back on their own 20-yard line. Facing fourth and eight on the Harding 10-yard line, Freeman was intercepted by HU's Brandon Brice which was returned all the way back the other way for another Bisons defensive score.

Harding won the total yardage battle 277-224, rushing for 272 of those yards. SWOSU had a one-hundred yard rusher, but six sacks dropped their rushing total to just 87 yards in the game.

The bright spot for the Bulldogs offense came in the form of Kedron Banks, who rushed for 106 yards on only 11 attempts – nearly all of which came in the second half. The air attack was stagnant all afternoon as Freeman and Tyler Marr combined to throw for just 137 yards on 13-of-37 attempts and three interceptions.

On defense for the Dawgs, both Gerald White and Colten Buie came up with fumble recoveries for the only two forced turnovers in the contest. Dominic Blue led SWOSU in tackles with nine, while White and Bailey McKay each added eight.

"The score today didn't show how hard we fought," Head Coach Dan Cocannouer said in his post-game interview. "I was really proud of them, our guys played their butts off but the score unfortunately doesn't reflect that. We just need to keep believing in ourselves, there's no reason to have any doubt."

SWOSU (2-6) will stay in-state next weekend and head to Oklahoma Baptist to take on the Bison. Kickoff is scheduled for 2 pm from Shawnee, Oklahoma.