BETHANY – Back on their home field for the final time in the Spring of 2021, the Southern Nazarene football team gave their fans a show on Thursday afternoon. In cold and windy conditions, SNU fell in heartbreaking fashion 21-20 to Missouri Southern State.
The Crimson Storm (0-3) scored a touchdown with 33 seconds remaining to cut the Lions (1-0) advantage to 21-20 and head coach
Dustin Hada had a big decision to make. Normally, the situation would call for the no-brainer PAT to tie it up at 21-21 and take your chances in overtime. This has been far from a "normal" year as Hada rolled the dice with his offense on the two-point conversion as MSSU's defense held strong and stopped the Storm.
After a failed onside kick, the Lions broke into victory formation for the final play of the game. For the game, the Crimson Storm outgained the Lions with 376 total yards compared to 293 for MSSU. SNU's 18 first-downs were seven more than Missouri Southern as the Storm went for 140 yards on the ground and 236 through the air. Turnovers were the biggest key in the game as Southern Nazarene's two fumbles proved costly. Two of MSSU's three scoring drives came from a very short field inside the SNU 20-yard line.
Junior quarterback
Gage Porter stole the show once again for the Crimson Storm as he went for 310 all-purpose yards on Thursday afternoon. 236 came through the air and 74 came from his feet as he racked up three total touchdowns on the day.
Angel Ramirez carried it four times for 26 yards while
Jarrell Farr finished with 15 rushing yards and 33 receiving yards.
Senior wide receiver
Reid Roelofs had a couple of highlight-reel catches as he went over 100 receiving yards for the second straight game. The wideout hauled in four catches for 105 yards while tight end
Jaren Alvarado raked in five receptions for 70 yards and the crunch-time touchdown with 33 seconds left.
On the defensive side of the ball,
Elijah Calhoun and
Elijah Calhoun led the way with four tackles.
Dylan Bauer,
Marcus Sowell,
Mason Williams and Josh Johnson all left their mark on the Lions' ballcarriers as Johnson had a couple of pass breakups as well.
After a couple of scoreless drives to start from both teams, Southern Nazarene struck first at the tail-end of the first quarter. Porter scampered through the Lion defense to put SNU on the board with a 7-0 lead after a 7 play, 73-yard drive. After the SNU defense forced a punt, the Storm had the ball on their own 20-yard line early in the second quarter. Porter's pitch to
Christian Shelmire on an option play was errant, as the Lions recovered the loose ball and five plays later, capped off the 15-yard drive to tie the game 7-7.
Later in the half,
Doryan Harris bobbled a punt that MSSU recovered near the endzone. The Lions quickly punched it in to take a 14-7 lead heading to the halftime break. Both defenses flexed their muscles in the third quarter as neither side found any points heading to the fourth with MSSU hanging on to the 14-7 lead.
Porter connected with Roelofs on a 49-yard bomb that setup the Storm in MSSU territory early in the fourth. After getting it into the redzone, Porter punched it in from the 3-yard line for his second rushing touchdown of the day to tie it 14-14 with 12:52 to play.
After a couple of more punts from both sides, Missouri Southern struck gold with a 51-yard touchdown pass to re-take the lead 21-14 with just 4:02 to play. SNU got the ball back and drove 75 yards down the field and tied it with Porter's connection to Alvarado with 33 seconds left. The Lions sniffed out the Storm's two-point conversion and sealed the victory with an onside-kick recovery.
Southern Nazarene will wrap up their Spring season a week from Saturday as they make the short drive to Edmond to battle Central Oklahoma on March 27
th. Kickoff with the Bronchos from Wantland Stadium is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.
