The Skyhawks defeated rival SEMO in a 34-10 beat down of the Redhawks on their way to 1-4 on the season.
After four weeks of some of the toughest matchups an FCS team will see, the Skyhawks made it to conference play and put on a dominant performance Saturday night. Both teams struggled going into Saturday, but the better team was obvious by Saturday night.
The Skyhawks posted their first game of the season with over 400 yards of offense, and they can thank senior quarterback Jase Bauer for the majority of it. Bauer completed 15 passes for 225 yards with two touchdowns. The biggest of those throws was the first play of the game in which Bauer hit senior receiver Bryce Bailey for a 75-yard touchdown to set the tone for the rest of the night.
Bauer also got it done on the ground, racking up 107 yards and two touchdowns on 15 rushes. Between designed runs and scrambles from the pocket, Bauer was a threat on the ground that SEMO—and now the rest of the OVC—needed to be aware of.
However, he could not have done it all himself. On the receiving end of most of Bauer’s passes was Bailey, who accounted for 135 yards and two touchdowns. Bailey has been the lone reliable weapon for the Skyhawks during the season.
“Nobody deserves it more than Bryce Bailey,” said head coach Jason Simpson. “He’s worked his tail off; he waited his turn. Every time I see him make a play it just kind of makes me smile.”
The improvement of the offensive line was the biggest takeaway from the game. Bauer was so effective through the air and on the ground due to the effectiveness of the offensive line. Coach Simpson called it “fun” to call games like that.
“We got in that unbalanced [formation] and, you could’ve called those,” said Simpson. “You’d been like, ‘You only got three runs, Coach. Which one you want? What order?’”
The Skyhawks also flourished in the run, despite the loss of starting senior running back John Gentry, who was out with a concussion he suffered last week against Missouri State. In his place was sophomore running back Tommy Ansley, who ran for 99 yards on 6.2 yards per carry.
Pacer Photo| Adrianna’ Carter
Defensively, the Skyhawks were dominant.
Holding SEMO to 30 yards on 27 carries during the night—averaging 1.11 yards per carry allowed. Leading that charge was senior linebacker Shamari Weir, who tallied eight tackles, two sacks and two and a half tackles for loss.
The inability to run the ball led the Redhawks to pass the ball 39 times. The Skyhawks made sure to punish those attempts with two interceptions. Both senior safety Jacob Stevenson and junior corner LaMarion Pierce had an interception. Another DB who played well was senior Josh Hastings, who tallied up five tackles. After recent struggles a bounce back game from the defensive backfield was much needed.
“Those two safeties take a lot of pride,” said Simpson. “They kind of set the tempo for us and I say several corners chip in tonight. I think we played four or five guys at the corner spot.”
The Skyhawks capitalized every opportunity on Saturday, and it earned them a well overdue spot in the win column.
Next week, the Skyhawks hit the road to take on the 2-3 Lindenwood Lions in their second conference game of the season on Saturday, Oct. 4, at 1 p.m.
