Box Score
BETHANY — Brady Wardlaw notched his second straight 500-yard passing game and went over 5,000 passing yards in his career as Southern Nazarene fell 62-42 to Northwestern Oklahoma State.
The junior now needs just 188 yards to become the school's all-time passing leader.
Not much went wrong for the Crimson Storm (4-3, 1-1 CSFL) offense as they totaled a school-record 613 yards while the Rangers (3-2, 2-0 CSFL) notched 490 yards, but the difference was in the special teams play. Northwestern ran two kick offs back for touchdowns and got the graces of two fumbled punt returns by the Crimson Storm. The Rangers recorded 234 yards on just four kick returns.
The special teams errors for SNU started on the kickoff as Jared Jackson ran back the opening kickoff 92 yards to the house to help put the Rangers up 7-0. That was the first of three straight touchdowns for NWOSU as they quickly jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first.
SNU got on the board with 5:35 left in the half when Wardlaw hit Martin for a seven-yard touchdown strike to complete a nine-play, 80-yard drive. The Rangers answered on their next drive, using just six plays to go 51 yards with the final 30 coming on a Nate Guillory touchdown run.
NWOSU went up 35-7 after a botched punt left the Rangers with the ball at their own 49-yard line. All it took was one pass from Kyle Jech to Korey Williams to take the 28-point lead with 14 seconds left. In the half. On the ensuing drive, Wardlaw threw an interception and the Rangers' Edgar Colmenares booted a 39-yard field goal to give NWOSU a 38-7 lead at the half.
After Northwestern added to its lead with a safety early in the third quarter, SNU answered with a 10-play, 59-yard drive that was capped by a 19-yard touchdown reception by David Balenseifen. The Rangers answered on the ensuing kickoff as Guillory ran it back 90 yards for the score to put Northwestern up 47-14 heading into the fourth.
SNU scored 21 fourth quarter points, but couldn't stop the Rangers from finding the endzone as they added 15 in the final quarter.
Wardlaw also broke the school-record for completions, going 37-for-61 on the night and he threw for five touchdowns and rushed for another. The junior found Jarod Martin on three different occasions for touchdowns as Martin racked up 152 yards receiving on nine catches. Josh Woods also recoded 107 yards receiving on six catches.
The Crimson Storm now take a week off before hitting the road to take on Texas College, Oct. 23, at 2 p.m.
