MAGNOLIA, Ark. – Homecoming, once again, did not disappoint for the Blue and Gold as Mulerider Football proved to be too much for the Southern Nazarene Crimson Storm on Saturday. (RV) Southern Arkansas moves to 4-1 on the season heading into its second trip to the Sooner State after defeating the Crimson Storm 49-21 at Wilkins Stadium. For the first time since the 2018-2019 seasons, the Muleriders have been titles victors at Homecoming for back-to-back seasons.
The Mulerider offense, especially through the air, left the Storm in the dust as junior quarterback
Judd Barton tossed for 332 passing yards after completing 25 of his 31 attempts, with three of those ending up in the endzone. Barton's longest pass of the afternoon ended up being 64 yards. While it was a long pass, that did not end up being the longest pass of the contest with redshirt-freshman
Adam Parker tossing for an 85-yard touchdown to
Seth Johnson down sideline for the final score of the day.
Southern Arkansas' receiving core showed out against SNU seven pass catchers brought in multiple receptions, with three recording 60+ yards receiving. One of those three was Johnson with his one reception for 85 yards, another being
Matthew Whitten who brought in a pair of receptions for 67 yards and two touchdowns, and while he did not score a touchdown on the day,
Jakarion Lockett (Kobe Lockett) led the team in receiving with 138 yards on six receptions with multiple of those coming while heavily contested.
Senior running back
Kadyn Roach led the troupe in rushing with his 20 carries going for 94 yards on the ground and one touchdown. Rushing for 24 yards on six carries was sophomore back
Arkez Gomez who also scored on the ground once, his first of 2024. While he did not lead the team on the ground, he absolutely was a major highlight of the rushing game as the program's all-time leading rusher,
Jariq Scales, eclipsed another milestone of now being the only Mulerider in program history with 4,000-plus yards rushing.
Three more turnovers were added to the Mulerider defense's resume as the group forced a pair of fumbles and created an early interception opportunity to easily gain control of the outing.
Tridell Talley Jr. and
Steven Adair both accounted for a forced fumble as Adair's forced fumble was also recovered by Talley Jr. The first turnover of the contest came by free safety
Justin Aaron worked the underneath of a short curl route to then hand the ball off to
Zay Woods in an attempt for more yards on the return.
Southern Arkansas takes its second trip to Oklahoma as the Muleriders will face the Oklahoma Baptist Bison Thursday night at 6:00 PM next week (Oct. 10). The Muleriders have just two home games left in 2024 as SAU will face in-state foe Henderson State in El Dorado in two weeks for the Murphy USA Classic. Southern Arkansas will be back in Magnolia in just over a month for senior day against the Northwestern Oklahoma State Rangers on November 9.
