Written by Carly Kester
The Bison football team won its first victory against Delta State Saturday, Oct. 15. This was the first time in Bison football history that the team had beaten the No. 9-ranked Delta State.The game was played at Delta State’s home field during their homecoming game. The Bisons led the first half with a score of 31-13. After halftime, Delta State made a comeback and was up 35-31 for most of the second half.The Bisons managed to bounce back with a winning touchdown pass thrown by senior quarterback Josh Powell and caught by senior wide receiver Jordan Watson. The final score was 38-35.Head football coach Ronnie Huckeba said that the new offensive strategy was partly the reason for the team’s success.”We’ve primarily been a throwing team in the past few years, but we’ve changed our offensive strategy to where we’re running the ball more and controlling the clock,” Huckeba said.Huckeba said this game was significant because Delta State was the first team the Bisons played against when Harding re-instated football back in 1959, and since then, the Bisons have not been able to beat Delta State.”They just beat our brains out that first year,” Huckeba said. “We were just getting our program started and they were an established program, so it was just a lot of frustration there because of how bad that loss was. And since we have been playing Delta State our record against them is 0-12-1; we’ve never beaten them.”Watson said this victory meant a lot to the team because there have been many close games this season.”All of our games this year have been pretty close,” Watson said. “We’ve lost three really close games and a touchdown, and with this game being so close and finally pulling one out in the end was really significant for us.”Watson also said scoring the winning touchdown against Delta State was important for him because he missed the chance to score at the game against West Alabama.”It meant a lot to me because at West Alabama I had the chance to catch the winning ball and it ended up getting back out of my hands, so it was a tough week getting over that,” Watson said. “Then coming down to the [end of the game], I had a feeling [Powell] was going to give me a second chance.””They’re a good team and they’re playing well with the best teams in our conference,” Huckeba said. “That’s exciting but it’s also very stressful, especially for the coach on the sidelines.”The next Bison football game will be against University or Arkansas-Monticello on Oct. 30 at First Security Stadium.
