Box Score ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – Southern Arkansas scored 21 third quarter points en route to a 44-28 win over Ouachita Baptist in Great American Conference play Saturday at A.U. Williams Field in the 69th meeting between the two teams.
 
Mulerider senior running back Carlos Brown (Pittsburg, Texas), filling in for injured junior starter Mark Johnson (Longview, Texas) for the second consecutive week, rushed for a career-high 156 yards and two touchdowns, while junior quarterback Tyler Sykora (Hot Springs Village) threw for 336 yards and three touchdowns on 18 of 31 passing, setting four new school records and assisting in a new team mark in the process.
 
The Muleriders racked up 506 yards of offense, with 170 coming on the ground to go with Sykora's 336 passing.  The Tigers had 480, getting 108 rushing and 372 passing.
 
Leading 17-14 at the half, SAU (7-2, 5-2 GAC) blew the game open in the third quarter, handing OBU (6-3, 4-3 GAC) its third consecutive loss.  The win was the first for Southern Arkansas at A.U. Williams Field since 2005 and stopped a three-game skid to Ouachita Baptist on its home field.
 
The Muleriders drew first blood at 12:04 in the first quarter on the first play of their second possession with Sykora hooking up with junior receiver Jack Brown (West Mesquite, Texas) for an 80-yard touchdown play, and sophomore Jacob Carpenter (Winona, Miss.) hitting the point-after.
 
The Tigers then forced a fumble from Carlos Brown at the end of a 56-yard run at the OBU 20 on SAU's next possession, with Aaron Garrett recovering in the end zone.  Ouachita Baptist then went 80 yards on 16 plays, with Chris Rycraw scoring from a yard out and Jason Fowler kicking the PAT to knot it 7-7 at 1:55, which stood as the score at the end of the first quarter.
 
Southern Arkansas went up 10-7 at 11:12 in the second stanza on a 33-yard field goal from Carpenter.
 
The Tigers roared back on their next possession, moving 59 yards in 11 plays, with quarterback Benson Jordan hitting Steven Kehner from 20 yards out for a 14-10 lead at 5:45.
 
The teams then exchanged possessions six times over the next five minutes, with OBU forced to punt from its own 20 with under a minute in the half.  Jack Brown returned it 47 yards to the Ouachita Baptist five, giving Sykora the ball with 14 seconds left.  Sykora immediately found freshman receiver Chris Terry (Lindale, Texas) for the five-yard touchdown with 10 ticks on the clock and a 17-14 halftime score.  The Muleriders never trailed again.
 
SAU essentially put the game away in the third quarter with their three touchdowns coming on a two-yard run from Carlos Brown at 11:51; a 66-yard interception return by senior corner back Don Unamba (Hurst, Texas) at 9:35; and Carlos Brown's second scoring run of the game from four yards out at 7:47.
 
The Tigers added a four-yard touchdown run by Ty Towers at 5:13, making it a 38-21 game at the end of three.
 
Towers added his second scoring run, from 12 yards, at 5:39 in the fourth quarter, before Southern Arkansas nailed the lid on the coffin with a five-yard touchdown pass from Sykora to junior tight end Brooks White (Van Buren) with 29 seconds left.  Carpenter's PAT failed, leaving it a 44-28 final.
 
Sykora's school record-smashing continued, with one new career and three season marks achieved.  His 336 yards passing lifted him to 5,519 yards of total offense in his career, breaking Ted Williams' (Pineland, Texas) 5,343 from 2000-2003, and also gave him 2,628 yards of total offense this season, passing Damian Melancon's (Hester, La.) 2,337 in 2004.  Sykora's 18 pass completions in 31 attempts give him 192 of 317 this season, breaking his own records from a year ago of 178 completions and 294 attempts.
 
The 336 passing yards also snapped the team record for a season with 2,682 yards, moving past last year's 2,346.
 
Jack Brown caught five of Sykora's passes for 129 yards, while Terry had four for 92 yards.
 
Carlos Brown picked up his 156 yards rushing on 24 attempts, averaging 6.5 yards per carry, and was the fifth 100-plus yard effort of his career.
 
OBU ran an incredible 99 plays in the game compared to the Muleriders' 61, with Jordan accounting for most of those in finishing 34 of 63 passing for 372 yards and the one touchdown, but tossing two interceptions.  Besides Unamba, Mulerider junior linebacker Sam Cowling (De Queen) snared the other one.
 
Jalen Jones had 15 catches for 107 yards.
 
Towers led Ouachita Baptist on the ground, rushing for 62 yards on 12 carries.
 
Junior linebacker Tate Mustin (Fayetteville, Tenn.) spearheaded SAU's defense with 10 tackles, six solo, and had one pass breakup.  Junior linebacker Mark Spaight (North Little Rock) had eight stops, six solo, including one for minus one yard.  Unamba had five solo tackles and two breakups to go with his 66-yard interception return.
 
Linebacker Antwion Patterson posted a game-high 15 tackles for the Tigers.
 
Southern Arkansas closes out the regular season next Saturday, hosting Arkansas Tech in a 2 p.m. kickoff at Wilkins Stadium.