SWOSU Football Team Loses at Northeastern, 17-13

October 29, 2005

 Tahlequah, OK - Southwestern Oklahoma State shoved its football opponent to the edge Saturday but could not push them over, losing 17-13 to Northeastern State University in Tahlequah. SWOSU pushed NSU around for much of the game but were unable to overcome a pair of big plays that sent the Bulldogs to their ninth straight loss.

SWOSU (1-9, 0-4) ran twice the plays, had the ball for more than 40 minutes and rolled to 394 yards of total offense. NSU (2-8, 2-2) punted seven times, gained just 248 yards and ran six plays on SWOSU’s side of the field in the second half.

The loss spoiled what had been a record-setting day by SWOSU wide receiver Danny Howard who caught 12 passes for 248 yards, both school marks.

With SWOSU leading 13-10, NSU’s Dominique Wadley provided the back-breaking play when he fielded a punt, side-stepped a couple of Bulldog tacklers and raced 63 yards for a touchdown with just 4:04 to play in the game.

SWOSU fought back behind quarterback Steve Day who engineered a gutsy last-minute drive starting from the Bulldog’s own 15-yard line. Day, who had his best day of the year completing 23-of-35 passes for 317 yards, found Howard for gains of 14, 5, 4 and 24 yards as the march moved downfield

Day then put SWOSU on the doorstep when he connected on a 14-yard pass to Derek Wall putting the ball on the NSU 19 with 29 seconds left. A penalty on NSU moved the ball to the Redmen’s 14. However, Day was unable to connect on his last two passes, the last of which an attempt to Howard in the endzone, as time expired.

SWOSU had taken the lead midway though the fourth after Michael Hart returned a punt to the NSU 39-yard line. A few plays later Day found Chris Craig for a 14-yard score with 8:59 to play.

The Bulldog defense, which had done a masterful job all day stuffing the Redmen attack, yielded only one time. NSU’s fleet-footed receiver Jarrett Byers got behind the SWOSU defenders and caught an 86-yard yard touchdown pass from quarterback Dustin Workman. The point after was good and NSU led 10-6 with 47 seconds to play in the third quarter.

SWOSU limited NSU to negative 15 yards of rushing in the second half and held the Redmen to just 57 total rushing yards, 98 yards below their season average.

Tommy Musa and Ryan O’Shields shared top tackling honors with six while freshman Ruzell McCoy had five stops, four of which were behind the line of scrimmage.

The Bulldogs close the 2005 season Saturday at home against Texas A&M-Commerce. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. at Milam Stadium.