**For
Immediate Release**
Turnovers Cost the Aggies in 35-3 Loss
- by Scott Puryear of Aggie Sports on 9/24/05
Goodwell, OK - Southeastern Oklahoma took advantage of
five first half Oklahoma Panhandle State turnovers, jumped
to a 28-0 halftime lead, then held on for a 35-3 win here
Saturday.
At the outset, it appeared it might be a close battle
between the OPSU Aggies and the Savages. Each was considered
better than their season-to-date records (Southeastern
at 1-2 and the Aggies at 1-3) and there was an anticipated
match-up between a pair of excellent freshman quarterbacks
(OPSU’s Brandon Warner and the Savages’ Justin
Pitrucha).
The Savages scored on their first possession, capped by
a one-yard Sean Cooper dive and a Pete Cuva PAT to make
the score 7-0 (and it stood that way at the end of the
first period).
Shortly after the start of the second period, the Savages
recovered an Aggie fumble. Soon after, Tim Holt caught
a 31-yard scoring pass from Pitrucha, and with Cuva’s
kick, the score stood 14-0 with ten minutes left in the
first half.
Though Warner and fullback David Daniels ran hard, the
Aggie offense could not get untracked in the first half
and by intermission, Southeastern was up, 28-0.
In the second half, the hitting was hard on both sides
and the Savages forced a fumble (which they recovered at
the OPSU 25) with six minutes left in the third quarter.
Two plays later, Southeastern took a 35-0 lead on a Pitrucha
to Derek Hixon 25-yard scoring hook-up and another Cuva
PAT.
OPSU’s first drive of the fourth quarter was capped
by Hal Rogers’ 34-yard field goal to narrow the score
to 35-3 and resulted in the only OPSU points on the day.
The Aggie defense, which did not play badly in the game,
held Southeastern scoreless in the final quarter.
Both first year quarterbacks played well. Warner had 145
yards in total offense (94 on the ground and 51 passing).
Pitrucha had 276 yards passing, but was limited to minus-8
yards rushing by the Aggie defense.
Daniels ran hard for OPSU in each of his 15 carries (totaling
81 yards). Jeff Cornwell snagged four passes for the Aggies
(totaling 25 yards) and teammate Shane Black caught three
for 45 yards.
Some of the hardest hits of the day came from the OPSU
defense, led by Clifford Dean’s ten tackles. Jeborric
Evans was in on nine stops and forced a pair of fumbles.
Aggie middle linebacker Ranoaldo Davis also had some great
hits on his way to nine tackles (two of them for losses)
and a quarterback sack. Kendrick Bevil was in on six tackles
and broke up two passes, while Orlando Vargas recovered
two fumbles and Gary Hendricks recovered one as well.
The Aggies will be on the road each of the next four Saturdays,
starting with the University of Nebraska–Omaha.
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