Box Score
BETHANY — Brady Wardlaw continues to take down record after record as the junior threw for a school record 506 yards in a 35-21 win over Southwestern Assemblies of God.
Wardlaw was 32-for-54 passing and threw for four touchdowns. He broke his own school record of 456 yards set last year at Olivet Nazarene.
The win moves the Crimson Storm to 4-2 overall and SNU opens Central State Football League play at 1-0.
Jarod Martin was the favorite target all day as he recorded 11 receptions for a season-high 215 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Martin averaged 19.5 yards per reception. Terrence Smith caught six passes for 90 yards and scored a touchdown as well.
A trio of players led the way for the Crimson Storm on the defensive side as Jayson Walser led the team in sacks with 2.5 and totaled nine tackles. Matt Pruitt led the team in tackles with 12 while Luke Olson notched 10 and recorded a sack.
SNU totaled 527 yards of offense and gave up 446 yards to the Lions. The Crimson also recorded three interceptions and forced four fumbles, recovering two.
Southwest Assemblies broke the scoreless tie just 1:33 into the second quarter when Eddie Bailey Jr. capped a 12-play, 75-yard drive with a two-yard run to put the Lions up 6-0, but Southern Nazarene answered on the ensuing drive. It took just three plays and 46 seconds for Wardlaw to find Terrence Smith for a 19-yard touchdown pass as SNU took the 7-6 lead.
With 1:28 left in the half, the Lions started with the ball on their own 49 and pushed it up to the SNU 31 with 34 seconds left. SAGU quarterback Jeremy Fowler found Nathaniel Pruitt for a reception that at first looked like a drop pass. After Pruitt lost control of the ball the ball bounced around inside the five. The ball eventually bounced out at the SNU two-yard line and gave SAGU a first-and-goal. After a stuffed rush, Southwestern Assemblies attempted a field goal and missed wide left, but SNU was called for offsides and gave SAGU a free chance. The Lions turned the free opportunity into a score as Bailey Jr. pushed the pile forward and gave SAGU a 13-7 lead at the half.
Southern Nazarene retook the lead at 14-13 on its first possession of the third quarter with a six-play, 86-yard drive that ended with a 42-yard pass from Wardlaw to Garrett Barnes. Wardlaw was 5-for-7 on the drive. SNU made it a 21-13 game after Derick Perkins rushed for his first touchdown of the game with a 1-yard dive to finish a six-play, 46-yard drive. That drive was kept alive when Wardlaw found Chisum Johnson for a 47-yard reception on a fourth-and-one.
On the next SAGU drive, a Southwestern Assemblies errant punt left SNU with a first-and-10 at the SAGU 24-yard line and on the Crimson Storm's first play, Martin made a one-handed catch with his left hand in the back of the end zone on a Wardlaw pass as SNU took a 28-13 advantage.
It was the Wardlaw-Martin connection again who put SNU up 35-13 when Wardlaw found Martin across the middle for a 28-yard touchdown pass that capped a four-play, 38-yard drive, to start the fourth quarter.
The Lions cut to 35-21 when Fowler hit Anthony Morris with a five-yard touchdown pass and then completed a 2-point conversion. SAGU had a chance to make it a 7-point game late in the fourth, but SNU got a stop in the red zone and a turnover on downs before running out the clock.
The three-game home stand closes next Saturday when the Crimson Storm host Northwestern Oklahoma State at 6 p.m.
