Wonder Boys unable to overcome sluggish start; fall on the road at UAM 24-13

MONTICELLO — The Arkansas Tech football team fell behind early in the first quarter and despite a tremendous second-half effort all-around, they were unable to overcome the slow start and lost on the road at Arkansas-Monticello, 24-13.
After Arkansas Tech won the opening coin toss and elected to defer to the second half, UAM had the game's first offensive possession and promptly went 60 yards on five plays for a touchdown. On the Wonder Boys' ensuing possession, UAM forced Tech to go three-and-out and punt from their own 20-yardline.
On that punt attempt, however, UAM got great pressure, blocked the punt and recovered in the endzone for a touchdown, and in the blink of an eye, the Boll Weevils held a 14-0 lead with less than five minutes of game time having elapsed.
The game would settle some, but with just over nine minutes left in the first half, UAM found the endzone once more to go up 21-0.
In their final offensive possession of the first half, the Wonder Boys put together a scoring drive as Christopher Baldazo drilled a 48-yard field goal attempt. That boot established a season-long for Baldazo, surpassing his 47-yard kick in week one against Oklahoma Baptist.
Coming out of the locker room at halftime, the Wonder Boys began to get some momentum going on offense and matriculated the ball down the field on that initial possession of the second half on 14 plays before scoring their first touchdown of the game. That score was a 18-yard pass from Ethan Everson to Jared Long.
The two teams then traded punts to expire the third quarter of action.
That trend continued on the first two possessions of the fourth quarter as the score remained 21-10 in favor of UAM.

Back with the ball and 11:45 on the clock, the Wonder Boys got the ball down to the UAM 18-yardline before being forced to attempt another Baldazo field goal. This time, the junior was good from 35 yards out and pulled Tech within a possession, 21-13, with 8:17 left.
With time on their side and the ball back, UAM ran the ball nine-straight times and collected three first downs before the Wonder Boys slowed the rushing attack down and called a timeout with 2:51 left and UAM facing a 3rd-and-9 from the Tech 20-yardline.
On that 3rd down play, the Tech defense came up with a big play as Ben Stegall sacked UAM quarterback Demilon Brown to push them back to the ATU 28-yardline and force the Boll Weevils to attempt a 45-yard field goal with 2:27 left.
Unfortunately, the long kick attempt had just enough clearance above the crossbar and was good, giving the Boll Weevils their first points of the second half and pushing their lead to 11 points, 24-13.
The Wonder Boys would have one final attempt at a scoring drive moments later, but a batted up pass at the UAM 15-yardline was intercepted with 1:30 to play, sealing the game for UAM.
The Wonder Boys will now turn their attention to a big home game next Saturday as they will take on nationally-ranked Ouachita Baptist. That game is Kid's Fest and Hall of Fame and will feature a kick-off of 2 p.m.
Kid's Fest activities will take place pregame during the Party at the Plaza tailgate in front of Williamson. At halftime, Arkansas Tech will publicly introduce the 2024 induction class of its Hall of Fame. For more information on this year's induction class, visit www.arkansastechsports.com/hof