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Tigers streak past Southwestern on Homecoming Day

jeff cali, the ada news, okla.
·4 min read

Oct. 25—It was a happy Homecoming day for the East Central University football team.

The Tigers bolted to a four-touchdown lead midway through the third quarter and waltzed past Southwestern 42-28 before 3,201 fans Saturday afternoon inside Koi Ishto Stadium.

East Central won for the sixth straight time to improve to 6-2 on the year, while Southwestern lost for the third consecutive time, falling to 3-5. The win streak is the Tigers' longest in 38 years since College Hall of Fame Quarterback Brad Calip led the team to eight straight in 1984.

"Our guys are playing at a high level right now. The last six weeks we've gotten better and better every single week. I'm so proud of them. I'm proud of these coaches. Everyone is so bought into what we are doing right now," ECU interim head coach Kris McCullough told The Ada News following the game. "Our play-making ability was on full display this game. We have guys just making plays left and right — offense, defense, special teams."

The Tigers had four scoring plays of 40 yards or longer in the contest. One of the SWOSU back-breakers was a picturesque 88-yard touchdown toss from quarterback Kenny Hrncir to wideout Jayquan Lincoln, who had got behind the Southwestern defense, caught the ball in stride and outraced everyone to the end zone. That put the Tigers on top 35-14 at the 10:20 mark of the third quarter. It was ECU's longest play of the season.

"That play has worked so many times for us. It's probably got the most yards of any play we've ran in the past five years," McCullough said. "We always have that in our hip pocket and he beat the DB and Kenny put it right on him."

Hrncir tossed his third touchdown of the day — a strike down the middle to Walter Brooks — that boosted the ECU lead to 42-14.

Game over.

Hrncir's most important pass of the game came with just over five minutes left in the game when he completed a 4-yard toss to Lincoln that made him East Central's all-time passing leader with 6,241 yards. Former ECU star QB Spencer Bond held the record at 6,239 yards since 2015. He finished the game 16-of-25 for 239 yards.

"He does not care about it, but he deserves every bit of recognition he gets. It was something I wanted to make sure happened here at Homecoming," McCullough said. "Spencer Bond was here to see him break his record. He's a phenomenal player and a phenomenal leader. But he has a great group around him."

Southwestern scored on a 29-yard run by Dexter Brown on the final play of the third quarter and added a 15-yard TD run by Tylan Morton with 5:32 left in the game which made the final score closer than the game actually was.

"We took our foot off the gas. I didn't want us to do that, but we found a way to win. That's the biggest thing," McCullough said.

East Central running back Nemier Herod finished with 151 yards on 22 carries. His 66-yard scoring jaunt on the Tigers' third offensive play set the early tone. The Tigers finished with 219 total rushing yards.

"We were able to establish the run and they couldn't stop us," McCullough said.

Receiver La'Quan Wells scored on a 40-yard romp after taking a handoff on a double reverse that put the Tigers ahead 14-7 at the 8:12 mark of the second period.

After the Bulldogs had tied the score at 14-all, ECU scored four unanswered touchdowns to break the game open.

ECU's other scoring plays came on a 41-yard pass from Hrncir to Greg Howell and a tough 2-yard TD run by Herod.

Defensively, the Tigers were dominant. SWOSU was held to 104 yards passing and completed less than half of its passes (14-of-30).

Devon Roush had a season-best 15 tackles while teammate Ameer Muhammad was next with 10 stops to lead the Tigers defensively. Orlando Brown followed with eight stops.

The Tigers remain in a three-way tie with Harding and Henderson State in the Great American Conference standings. All three trail unbeaten Ouachita Baptist by two games.

The OBU Tigers are 8-0 and were ranked No. 3 in last week's D2Football.com Top 25 poll. The ECU Tigers will try to change all that Thursday night when they travel to Arkadelphia, Arkansas to battle Ouachita Baptist. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. inside Cliff Harris Stadium.