Pioneers drop close one to OPSU

In what was their closest game – by far – of the season, the Wayland Baptist football team came out on the short end against Oklahoma-Panhandle State, falling to the Aggies in a Sooner Athletic Conference battle Saturday afternoon at Greg Sherwood Memorial Bulldog Stadium, 20-13.
 
Before this weekend, the closest outcome of the season for Wayland (2-4, 2-3 SAC) had been 20 points. Against the Aggies 3-4, 3-3), neither team led by more than seven at any point in the game.
 
OPSU took a 6-0 lead with a pair of field goals, but the Pioneers led 7-6 at halftime when Brenden Stickland turned an inside slant route into a 69-yard touchdown. Jeffrey Lucido's PAT made it 7-6 Wayland just over four minutes into the second period.
 
The score didn't change until 15 game minutes later after Tyrelle Lewis intercepted OPSU quarterback Brandon Stephen on the Aggies' first play of the second half. Wayland got it at the Aggie 29-yard line after the pick, and it took just four plays for the Pioneers to punch it into the endzone. One play after an 18-yard run, Naaji Gadsden found paydirt from three yards out, and the Pioneers stretched their lead to 13-6.
 
But Wayland's offense was held out of the endzone the rest of the way.
 
OPSU, meanwhile, scored its final two TDs before the end of the third thanks to a series of big plays. The first was a 44-yard pass from Stephen to Jordan Jackson that tied it at 13 midway through the third.
 
The Pioneers put together a 14-play, 59-yard drive that ended with a missed 34-yard field goal on 4^th-and-3 from the OPSU 17. Just two plays and 52 seconds after that, the Aggies were putting up the winning points. A 58-yard run by Willie McCline was followed by a 32-yard pass from Stephen to Antonio Vaughn on a pass lofted over the middle of the secondary and caught at the WBU 15. With nine seconds left in the third, the score was finalized.
 
The teams twice traded punts before the Pioneers put together an 11-play, 58-yard drive that ended with Wayland failing to convert a fourth-and-2 at the OPSU 22 with 2:50 left in the game.
 
The Aggies picked up one first down before the WBU defense forced a punt. On 4^th-and-32 from the OPSU 20, the Pioneers almost blocked the punt. Instead, Javier Sinecio's wind-aided boot traveled 61 yards with no return, leaving the Pioneer offense only four seconds from its own 9. A pass up the left sideline resulted with Skyler Whitten being pushed out of bounds at the WBU 40 to end the game.
 
Wayland had more first downs, 17-16, and more rushing yards, 141-121, while OPSU outgained the Pioneers in the air, 272 yards to 200. The game featured 17 punts, eight by the Aggies and nine by the Pioneers.
 
WBU is back at home next Saturday to host SAC newcomer Louisiana College (1-5, 1-3). The Wildcats, who were off this weekend, defeated OPSU last weekend in Pineville, La., 41-35.