WEATHERFORD, Okla. – Early mistakes saw the Bulldog Football team fall behind early and face a deficit they were unable to overcome as they dropped a 35-7 contest to Henderson State on Saturday afternoon at ASAP Energy Field.
Henderson State led 7-0 after the first quarter, but scored on the first play of the second quarter to make it 14-0. SWOSU fumbled the ensuing kickoff and compounded the mistake with a personal foul, which set the Reddies up inside the 10-yard line and three plays later the Dawgs found themselves down 21-0. The deficit grew to 28-0 at halftime.
SWOSU's first drive of the second half was undoubtedly their best as they covered 75 yards in 13 plays to get on the board with a five-yard scoring strike from
Tyler Marr to
Justin Bailey. The Bulldogs drove into HSU territory twice more in the game, but both drives would stall and end on downs.
HSU rushed for 239 yards in the game and finished with 390 yards of total offense compared to 250 yards gained by the Bulldogs, 198 of which came through the air. Marr completed passes to 10 different receivers and finished 22-for-39 for 198 yards and a score. Bailey was his top target with five receptions for 59 yards and his second touchdown of the season. SWOSU managed just 52 yards on the ground, including 22 yards on six carries by
Donnell Hawkins.
As he has done for much of the season, senior safety
Braden Sweet led the Bulldogs in tackles, totaling nine stops (five solo, four assist) while
Javotrick Dotrey,
CJ Jennings and
Wesley Mathis hat six apiece.
Jalen Carr had three pass breakups and one interceptions in addition to one tackle for loss while
Malcolm Davis broke up two passes and
Davotrick Dotrey blocked a Henderson State field goal attempt in the second quarter.
"You look at it and the second half was 7-7, so I'm pleased with the way our guys continued to fight regardless of the score," SWOSU Head Coach
Chet Pobolish said. "We can't start out slow and spot people 28 points, you're just not going to win many games like that and this is the second week in a row so we need to get back to work tomorrow and get things figured out."
SWOSU, now 2-4 on the year and mired in a four-game slide, heads to Searcy, Ark., next Saturday for a meeting with nationally-ranked Harding.
