Southern Nazarene Game Notes
Southern Arkansas Game Notes
GAC Notebook

BETHANY, Okla. — The final home game before homecoming is here and Southern Nazarene is looking for its first win of the season as it hosts Southern Arkansas in the final home game of October. The Crimson Storm are coming off its closest loss of year with a 2013 defeat at the hands of Southeastern Oklahoma State. Southern Arkansas opened the season with a 56-50 loss at Southeastern Oklahoma State, but rattled off three straight. The Muleriders though have lost the last two games against Harding and Arkansas Tech at home.

LAST WEEK
Michael Hicks set Southern Nazarene's school record for tackles in a career as the junior had 12 tackles in a 31-14 loss to Southeastern Oklahoma State.

Hicks needed just seven tackles to surpass Chris Bogle's (2000-03) 274 career tackles and Hicks finished the day with 280. However for Hicks, his season came to an end as he suffered a season-ending injury. The injury actually came at East Central, but Hicks wanted to get one more home game in before the season ended.

Jarod Martin and Dylan Terry each had season highs as Martin totaled 122 yards in receiving while Terry had 276 yards passing. Martin had eight catches and a touchdown reception. Terry was 29-for-56 passing and threw the one touchdown to Martin. Brian Yenor nearly had his second straight 100-yard rushing game as the freshman had 99 yards on 16 carries. He also scored his first career touchdown.

Hicks and Blake Cavill led the way on the defensive side as Cavill had a game-high 15 tackles. Hicks also had 1.5 tackles for a loss of three yards and a fumble recovery. Christo Lisika had two sacks and forced a fumble. Konner Bent also had an interception.

Neither team scored until the 5:31 mark in the first half when Southeastern took a 7-0 lead. The Savage Storm (2-4, 2-3 GAC) pushed it to 14-0  early in the second quarter before Southern Nazarene got on the board with 4:41 left in the half when Terry hit Martin for a 20-yard strike to complete a 9-play, 62-yard drive to make it 14-7.

SOSU led 21-7 with 2:28 in the half when SNU went on a 58-yard drive that was capped by Yenor's three-yard run on third and goal. The Storm trailed just 21-14 at the half, but it was all Southeastern in the second half as it shut out SNU in the final 30 minutes of play.

The Muleriders held a 13-0 lead at the half on Arkansas Tech last week, but watched the Wonder Boys scored 14 unanswered second half points to secure the win. SAU out gained ATU by 25 yards, but were shutout in the second half. 

INSIDE THE GAC
Dylan Terry is eighth in the Great American Conference in passing yards per game at 165.8 He needs just five more for 1,000 yards on the year.  Ian Sanders is 10th in the GAC in scoring for kickers at 15 points. The senior is 12-for-12 on PATs and 1-for-2 on field goal attempts. 

Defonzo Mack and Johnathan Martin are fourth and fifth in kick returns as Mack is averaging 17.2 yards per return while Martin is averaging 16.6 yards per return. 

Michael Hicks is currently ranked second in the Great American Conference in tackles with 56. Blake Cavill is sixth with 44 and Matthew Gregg and Josh Price are both tied for 21st with 40. 

Christo Lisika leads the GAC in tackles for a loss at 11.0 for a loss of 43 yards. He is also second in sacks at 4.5 on the year. 

RECORD CHASING
Dylan Terry became the third player in school history to pass for over 3,000 yards for his career. He stands third all-time in SNU history in career passing yards with 3,024. He has 22 career passing touchdowns ranking him fourth all-time. He needs just one more to catch Dan Denardo (2003-04) for third. 

Jarod Martin went over 2,500 receiving yards in his career and now has 2,526 receiving yards as the school's all-time leader. With one more catch, he will increase his school-record to 160 receptions. He moved into second all-time this past week in touchdowns scored, in a tie with Derick Perkins, with 33. He also is third all-time in points scored with 198 and needs five more to pass Perkins for second all-time. 

With five more successful PATs, Ian Sanders will become the first kicker in school history to hit 100. 

ABOUT THE MULERIDERS
Southern Arkansas brings in the fourth best scoring offense in the Great American Conference. The Muleriders are averaging 32.3 points per game and have scored 27 touchdowns on the year.

SAU averages 443.5 yards per game which is fourth the conference. The Muleriders are second in the GAC in passing offense at 321.0 yards per game and that's also 13th in all of Division II. Tyler Sykora leads the offensive attack through the air as the SAU quarterback has thrown for 1,863 yards on the year and is averaging 310.5 passing yards per game. That's only second to Henderson State's Kevin Rodgers. Sykora is also eighth in passing efficiency at 126.3. Chris Terry is the favorite target for Sykora as Terry leads the GAC in receiving yards per game at 122.0. He averages 25.2 yards per catch and 4.8 catches per game which also ranks him ninth in the conference. His 732 yards receiving this year is nearly 100 yards more than any other receiver in the GAC.

Southern Arkansas is seventh in the conference in rushing offense at 122.5 yards per game. Mark Johnson leads the ground attack for the Muleriders as he is averaging 83.2 yards per game and has 499 yards on the season. Johnson is also fourth in the GAC in scoring at 8.0 points per game while Terry is seventh at 7.0 points per game. Asutin Shoemake is eighth in scoring for kickers as he is 14-for-17 in PATs and 4-for-8 in field goals.

Southern Arkansas is giving up an average of 24.2 points per game which ranks them fifth in the Great American Conference. 

The Muleriders are also fifth in total defense giving up an average of 359.2 yards per game. Opponents are averaging 156.2 yards per game on the ground and 203.0 yards per game through the air. SAU is seventh in the GAC in rushing defense and third in passing defense. The Muleriders are fourth in the GAC in opponents third-down conversions as teams are converting just 34.7 percent of the time. SAU leads the conference in opponents' fourth-down conversions as teams are 0-for-5 in fourth downs against them.

Southern Arkansas is third in the conference in red zone defense as teams have had just 14 chances all year in the red zone and have scored just 10 times. The Muleriders have also forced 16 turnovers this season with six fumbles and 10 interceptions. They have also given up 13 for a plus-3 turnover margin.

Tate Mustin and Mark Spaight lead the way on the defensive side for SAU as the two are sixth and 10th in the GAC in tackles. Mustin has 44 on the year and while Spaight is 10th. Bruce Guillory is in the top 20 in the GAC in sacks with two and is also seventh in tackles for a loss with six total. James Thurston also leads the conference in interceptions with three.