Box Score They may dwell in the desert, but the Arizona Christian Firestorm proved Saturday a little cool, wet weather doesn't bother them.
In a homecoming game interrupted by lightning not once but twice and played much of the time in intermittent showers, Wayland Baptist couldn't pull out a win in its Central States Football League opener on Saturday afternoon at Greg Sherwood Memorial Bulldog Stadium, falling to the Firestorm, 36-24.
Wayland (2-3, 0-1 CSFL) was hoping to snap a two-game losing skid, but instead the Firestorm (1-3, 1-0) picked up their first victory of the season.
The players were driven off the field by lightning during pregame warmups, although kickoff able was on time. Lightning again halted play with 16 seconds left in the second quarter, again sending players to the locker rooms and fans to their vehicles with the score tied at 21-all.
After about an hour delay, teams returned to the field and played the final 16 seconds of the first half before immediately starting the third quarter.
Unfortunately for Wayland, the second half was mostly all Arizona Christian.
After Wayland's
Daniel Martinez kicked a 19-yard field goal to put the Pioneers ahead 24-21, Arizona Christian did the rest of the scoring, getting a field goal of their own along with a pair of touchdowns. The Pioneers, meanwhile, mostly struggled moving the ball and were victimized by turnovers. Wayland gave it away four times on the day – two fumbles and a pair of interceptions.
The Pioneers scored all three of their first-half touchdowns in the air, with freshman quarterbacks
Mitchell Parsley and
Austin Sheridan taking over signal-calling duties for injured
Payson Bain. Sheridan hooked up with
Trey Rowe on a 50-yard pass for WBU's first score, then Parsley got the next two, a 19-yarder to
Preston Woodard followed by a 47-yarder to
Chris Acosta.
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Arizona Christian scored four of its five touchdowns in the air, where the Firestorm threw for 262 yards. That was just 30 more than Wayland's passing attack produced, but the scales were tipped Arizona Christian's favor on the ground where the Pioneers managed only 71 yards on 33 carries compared to the Firestorm's 213 yards on 46 attempts. PJ Sparks accounted for 204 steps.
Woodard ended with six catches for 104 yards for Wayland while Rowe also passed the century mark with five grabs for 101. Sheridan finished 14-of-36 for 167 yards while Parsley was 6-of-12 for 127.
Linebacker
Alden Mann again had an outstanding game, leading the Pioneer defense with 13½ tackles, including 10 solo stops and four tackles for loss.
Wayland ends a three-game homestand on Oct. 10 by hosting Texas College at 2 p.m. The Steers (0-4, 0-1) fell to CSFL-leading Southwestern Assemblies of God University on Saturday, 49-10.
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