Earth has made nearly 86 full trips around the sun since the Wonder Boys from Arkansas Tech University last set foot on a gridiron in Shawnee, Okla., for an intercollegiate football contest against Oklahoma Baptist University.
That streak will end at noon on Saturday, Sept. 10, when Arkansas Tech (1-0) and the Oklahoma Baptist Bison (0-1) meet in Great American Conference action at Crain Family Stadium.
Radio station KCJC 102.3 FM and www.arkansastechsports.com will have play-by-play coverage.
The Wonder Boys’ only previous game at Oklahoma Baptist resulted in a 6-3 Arkansas Tech victory on Oct. 11, 1930. The track record of the scheduled starting quarterbacks in Saturday’s contest — Arkansas Tech’s Ty Reasnor and Oklahoma Baptist’s Dezmond Stegall — suggests that it could be a more high-scoring affair this time around.
Reasnor made a splash in his Tech debut by completing 22-of-26 passes for 231 yards and two touchdowns while leading the Wonder Boys to a 46-0 victory over Southern Nazarene University on Sept. 1.
“You always wonder what’s going to take place in that first game of the year,” said Arkansas Tech head coach Raymond Monica. “(SNU) gave us some things, and we took advantage of them. They put a lot of defenders in the box, and that forced us to throw the football. I thought we threw it extremely well.”
Stegall is back for his second season as the Bison starting quarterback. He passed for 1,103 yards and rushed for 564 yards while accounting for 16 touchdowns (10 passing, six rushing) in 2015.
“(Oklahoma Baptist) is doing a good job running the football, but they’re really mixing in the pass well,” said Monica. “It’s going to come down to how the quarterback plays. (Stegall) has improved throwing the football.”
A product of Searcy, Ark., Stegall completed 18-of-34 passes for 123 yards in a season-opening 38-7 loss at Harding University on Sept. 3. His favorite target was Josh Pettijohn, who made seven receptions for 66 yards.
Arkansas Tech defeated Oklahoma Baptist 50-7 last season in Russellville in their first meeting as fellow GAC members. The Bison were 2-9 in their inaugural tour of the Great American Conference, but two of their losses were in overtime and they stayed within 11 points of three league heavyweights — Henderson State University, Harding University and Ouachita Baptist University.
