By: Jacob Pumphrey
Editor's Note: In honor of the 20th Anniversary of the 1997 Mulerider Football Team capturing the Gulf South Conference Championship, the Southern Arkansas Sports Information Department will, on a weekly basis, recreate the 1997 season through brief game recaps and box scores.
MAGNOLIA, Ark. (Oct. 11, 1997) – Five Mulerider rushers recorded 60 or more yards on the ground, while the SAU defense held the Arkansas Tech offense under 215 total yards and allowed just one score as Southern Arkansas used a strong, 28-point first half to roll to a 42-7 win over the Wonder Boys on Saturday night at Wilkins Stadium. The Muleriders improve to 4-1 overall this season and 3-1 in Gulf South Conference play.
Sophomore quarterback Adam Pendergrass (Van Buren, Ark.) accumulated 170 of Southern Arkansas' 494 total yards of offense. Pendergrass rushed 16 times for a team-high 78 yards and connected on four of eight pass attempts to three different receivers for 92 yards and a touchdown.
Defensively, the Muleriders recorded 17 tackles for loss including five sacks for 24 yards and limited the Tech aerial attack to just six yards per completion.
The Muleriders' wishbone offense had its way against Tech as SAU dominated on the ground by committee with junior halfback Byron Mitchell (Lewisville, Texas), who started at fullback on Saturday, tallying 72 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries. Shreveport natives Kendrick Law (71 yards) and Kevin Little (63 yards) combined for 134 yards on 23 touches, with Little also snagging a pair of passes for 31 yards.
Several young guys got in on the act offensively for the Muleriders as freshmen Marques Ashley (Keithville, La.) and Michael Young (Shreveport, La.) carried three times each for a combined 47 yards, while classmate backup quarterback Tim Barrington (Lafayette, La.) toted eight times for 69 yards and completed a pass for seven yards. Barrington owned SAU's longest carry of the evening with a 35-yard gallop in the fourth quarter as it was one of ten rushes of ten or more yards for the Muleriders.
The high-scoring first half for SAU began with Law punching in the game's first score from 24 yards out with just under two minutes remaining in the opening quarter. The next Mulerider drive resulted in another score, this one through the air, as Pendergrass connected with his favorite target in classmate Drew Cone (Van Buren, Ark.) from 10 yards out as his fourth touchdown pass of the season pushed the SAU lead to 14-0 with 10:51 to play in the first half.
Cone caught two passes for 47 yards and senior split end Jermaine Gales (Rialto, Calif.) caught one pass for 21 yards.
Up two touchdowns and with the Mulerider defense shutting down any Tech offensive, Little tacked on two more SAU scores with touchdown runs of one and eight yards as the Muleriders carried a four-touchdown lead into the intermission, 28-0.
After the break, Mitchell increased the lead to 35-0 with a 25-yard run that found pay dirt and capped a quick four play, 65-yard drive less than two minutes into the second half. That would be the only score of the third quarter and with 12:26 remaining in the game, Tech scored their only points of the contest on a one-yard touchdown run ending a drive that lasted almost seven and a half minutes.
Law bookended his first quarter touchdown that opened scoring with a one-yard score in the fourth quarter to end scoring as Southern Arkansas stamped their fourth win of the season after 395 yards rushing on 64 carries. Twenty-one of SAU's 25 first downs came via the rush.
Sophomore defensive back Jeff Sustaire (Emory, Texas) led the defense with nine stops and senior linebacker Fred Perry (Fort Smith, Ark.) added eight tackles. Perry recorded four tackles for loss totaling nine yards, while junior defensive linemen Mel Polk (Broken Bow, Okla.) and Edward Henderson (Monroe, La.) collected five total tackles for loss with Henderson's both counting for two of the Mulerider defense's aforementioned five sacks.
Arkansas Tech threw it 39 times on Saturday, completing 18 passes for 112 yards and of the 21 incompletions, SAU swatted nine passes led by junior defensive lineman Jody Walker's (Fairfield, Texas) pair.
In all, 18 Muleriders recorded at least two tackles, while 25 total players registered one stop as the Mulerider defense was again stifling for the second weekend in a row.
Southern Arkansas remained home at Wilkins Stadium for a Week 7 homecoming tilt with Northwestern Oklahoma State.
