GOODWELL, Okla. – Wayland Baptist rallied from a 17-point halftime deficit, but the Pioneers stalled while driving to win the game in the final seconds of a 20-17 Sooner Athletic Conference loss to Oklahoma-Panhandle State on Saturday afternoon at Anchor D Stadium.
The Pioneers (1-2, 0-2 SAC) kept OPSU (2-2, 2-0) out of the end zone after the Aggies put together a 50-yard drive took eight precious minutes off the clock, and Wayland took over at its own 4 with 2:35 left.
Nick Quintero completed a 14-yard pass to Ben Owen on first down, and the Pioneers were on the move. After a roughing-the-pass penalty, Quintero extended the drive with a fourth-down-and-2 completion to Caden Bailey, giving Wayland life again with a first down at midfield with just over a minute to go.
But the OPSU defense came up big, forcing Quintero into two incompletions while sacking him twice as time ran out on WBU's comeback hopes.
"The kids played really hard and hung in there all the way through the end of it," Wayland coach Butch Henderson said. "We had some chances and just didn't got those end points."
It was the closest the Pioneers have come in five tries to knocking off the Aggies, who were ranked the equivalent of 28th in the NAIA in preseason polls after ending last season 7-3 and ranked 24th.
On its homecoming, OPSU scored first on a 17-yard field goal then made it 10-0 when Vaderik Grayer stripped a Pioneer ball carrier and took the ball 19 yards for a touchdown.
Wayland's first points came on an 18-yard field goal by Edgar Baeza midway through the second quarter, but the Aggies answered with seven more points on a 17-yard TD pass. OPSU then made it 20-3 with a 29-yard field goal with eight seconds left before halftime.
The Pioneer defense needed to pitch a shutout in the second half to give Wayland a chance, and that's exactly what it did.
Wayland's offense was doing its part as well, as De'Sean Johnson scored on an 8-yard run on the Pioneers' first third-quarter possession to make it 20-10.
It became a 3-point game when Johnson ran a wheel route and Quintero found him for a 16-yard scoring strike with 10:30 left in regulation.
Held mostly in check the entire second half, the Aggie offense managed to string together a 15-play drive starting from its own 45. They were aided by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Wayland – only its fourth penalty of the game – as well as an apparent fumble recovery by the Pioneers that was reversed after a conference by the officials.
"The kids handled some critical calls and stayed in there and kept playing," Henderson said. "It would have been real easy to get absorbed in that."
OPSU had it first down at the WBU 11, but after a 7-yard gain, two rushes were stuffed for no gain, bringing up fourth and 3. Following a timeout by Wayland, a trick pass fell incomplete, giving the Pioneers one last chance that looked promising but ultimately stalled.
Wayland, which missed a 26-yard field goal early in the second quarter, struggled to get its rushing game going. The Pioneers ended with minus-24 yards on the ground, thanks in part to six sacks that cost Wayland 43 yards. Quintero completed 24-of-41 passes for 196 yards.
The Aggies ran for 127 yards and threw for another 160.
"We played extremely well again defensively, and played a lot better offensively in the second half," Henderson said.
It was Wayland's first away game of the season. The Pioneers stay on the road to take on No. 13 Langston (1-1, 1-0) next Saturday. The Lions opened their season with a 63-36 home win over first-year Ottawa-Arizona before falling at Southern-Baton Rouge, 33-18. Langston hosts Southwestern Assemblies of God, which defeated Wayland last week 54-23, on Saturday night.
"We have to get over this oneand get ready to play again," Henderson said.
