Alva Review-Courier -

ARKADELPHIA, Ark. - The Southern Nazarene football team hung tough with the No. 4 ranked Ouachita Tigers, trailing 20-0 going into the fourth quarter, but a slew of turnovers and big plays from the Tigers blew the game open with Ouachita taking a 41-0 win over the Crimson Storm on Thursday night at Cliff Harris Stadium.

The Crimson Storm finished with 140 yards of offense including 102 on the ground while Ouachita racked up 441 yards of offense including 271 on the ground in their potent rushing attack. SNU turned the ball over twice while the Storm defense did not get a takeaway for the first time this season.

Both teams began with three-and-outs before Ouachita went on an eight-play, 77-yard drive including a huge 40-yard run by Brayden Brazeal on 3rd and 14 to move into SNU territory. Kris Oliver capped the drive with a nine yard touchdown run to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead in the first.

Both offenses remained quiet going into the second quarter before Ouachita went on a nine-play, 86-yard drive using a pair of 20+ yard passing play including a 23 yard score from Brazeal to La'Darius McElroy to make it a 14-0 game midway through the second quarter.

The SNU offense remained stalled and could not get anything going as the game went into half with the Tigers still holding a 14-0 lead.

The Crimson Storm offense continued to struggle in the second half while Ouachita used a pair of 11-play drives to run clock, but the SNU defense kept the Tigers out of the endzone, holding Ouachita to in a 39 and 22-yard field goal from Cole Antley to push the Tiger lead out to 20-0.

SNU moved to about midfield and faced a fourth and 1, looking to go for it, but a false start sent the Storm back five yards and resulted in a punt. Ouachita took that and went 66 yards in seven plays as Oliver found pay dirt for the second time, this time from four yards out, to move ahead 27-0.

The Crimson Storm had a pair of fumbles late in the game while Ouachita added two more scores in the fourth to pull away and take the 41-0 win.

Sophomore Gage Porter was 8 of 13 for 38 yards passing while Porter also added 45 yards on the ground on 10 carries. Alfred Grear added 24 yards on seven carries while sophomore Nate Walker had three catches for 10 yards.

For Ouachita, Brazeal was 11 of 16 for 133 yards and a touchdown while Oliver rushed 28 times for 151 yards and two scores. Caleb Sallisbur added two carries and two touchdowns as well while McElroy led all receivers with three catches for 47 yards.

Defensively, freshman Trevon Hadley had 10 tackles while sophomore Angel Hernandez had nine tackles. Senior Daniel Flynn and freshman Trenton Smith each had eight tackles while junior Josh Jordan had four tackles and a sack. Four different tacklers led Ouachita in Tevin Jones, Hayden Lassiter, Dameyun McDonald, and Rico Gonzalez.

SNU moves to 1-7 overall and 1-7 in the GAC. They will get a few extra days off before returning to the road next Saturday as they head to Alva to take on Northwestern Oklahoma State. Kickoff is slated for 2 PM.