Wonder Boys defense shines late in 29-19 win on Homecoming vs. SWOSU

RUSSELLVILLE — The Arkansas Tech football team got clutch plays from its defense in the fourth quarter of their Homecoming game against Southwestern Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon en route to a 29-19 win.
Two of those clutch plays were takeaways as the Wonder Boys had an interception and a fumble recovery in the fourth quarter. Both of those ended up resulting in touchdowns. The INT led directly to a touchdown as it was a 15-yard pick-six by Jyrin Steward right at the beginning of the fourth quarter. That pick-six was the second in as many games for the Wonder Boys after previously going a span of seven years between one prior to last week.
At the point of the Steward defensive touchdown, which occurred at about the 14-minute mark of the fourth quarter, the Wonder Boys were holding on to a three-point lead, 15-12. It was not long before that they took that lead as Jordan Edington scored a rushing touchdown, his second of the game, from nine yards out as time expired in the third quarter.
The second clutch play/takeaway came when the Wonder Boys needed it the most. On the prior SWOSU possession, the Bulldogs drove down the field and scored a touchdown with 9:38 to play in the fourth quarter to again pull within three points, 22-19. On the ensuing kickoff, the Bulldogs got the ball right back as the Wonder Boys muffed the kickoff that was skied short to the Tech 15-yardline.
The Bulldogs made the recovery of the muff at the Tech 22-yardline and took over possession at that spot. Faced with 3rd-and-12 after the first two plays of the drive, it looked as though the Wonder Boys were going to force a SWOSU field goal attempt on that play as they were stopped well short of the first down, but a face mask penalty on Tech gave the Bulldogs a first down and the ball at the Tech 12-yardline.
With momentum shifting rapidly to SWOSU, the Wonder Boys' defense made the game-changing play on the second play after the facemask. That play was a forced fumble by Israel Whitmore on SWOSU QB Kai Kunz, who was stood up by another Tech defender, which allowed Whitmore to come in and jar the ball loose. Tyler Mosley then promptly recovered the fumble at the Tech 7-yardline to give them the ball back.
With 7:34 left on the clock and leading by three, the Wonder Boys turned to the ground to both gain yards and chew the clock. After the first two running plays were carried by Deuce Wise for 10 yards and a first down, Wise broke things open as he ripped of a 52-yard run to get the ball to the SWOSU 31-yardline.

The Wonder Boys would run the ball twice more and turned to Myles West as he came on to spell Wise, who had just collected 62 of his 166 yards rushing over the previous three plays. In field goal range and facing 3rd-and-6 from the SWOSU 27-yardline, the Wonder Boys went for the knockout blow and went to the air where Ethan Everson connected with Jordan Jackson for a touchdown to push their lead back out 10 points, 29-19, with 4:04 to play in the fourth quarter.
Things got a little dicey for the Wonder Boys on the ensuing kick-off as the Bulldogs ripped off a 52-yard return that got the ball to the Tech 46-yardline, but a hold by SWOSU occurring at the 21-yardline helped spring that return and brought the Bulldogs back to their own 11-yardline with just under four minutes to play.
It would not take the Bulldogs long to get the ball down the field some as in four plays they were at their own 45-yardline. After an incompletion, the Wonder Boys' defense came up with their third turnover of the fourth quarter as Kylan Crite picked off a pass at the Tech 14-yardline, giving the Wonder Boys possession with just over two minutes left on the clock.
The Wonder Boys would attempt to run out the rest of the clock, but with 4th-and-1 from their own 23-yardline, they elected to punt the ball away and put faith in their defense one final time.
That would not be necessary, however, as the Wonder Boys retained possession thanks to a running into the kicker penalty on SWOSU. Had it not been for the penalty, the Bulldogs would have started at their own 20-yardline because, despite being running into, punter Logan Tymeson booted his punt 77 yards into the endzone.
Back with possession, the Wonder Boys needed to run the ball twice more before SWOSU used their final timeout ahead of the game-ending kneel down by Everson.
The Wonder Boys will now prepare to hit the road next Saturday as they are at Arkansas-Monticello. Kick-off is scheduled for 4 p.m. from Monticello.