The No. 15 ranked Harding Bisons football team had their first loss of the season Thursday, Aug. 31 to Henderson State, 28-20. The game, played at Harding\u2019s First Security Stadium, was both teams\u2019 first of the season.<\/p>\n
Senior running back Grant Kimberlin said the team was prepared for the game, knowing they had a good chance to win, but small errors in the end lead to their defeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the game, we felt like we had it, but we just didn\u2019t connect on all cylinders,\u201d Kimberlin said. \u201cAfter the loss, we have a lot of room to improve, so that\u2019s what this week is about. I think this next week will show who we really are.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the top of the game, the Bisons wasted no time and scored the first touchdown after taking advantage of a fumble by the Reddies in the opening kickoff. Junior quarterback Terrence Dingle made the 30-yard touchdown pass to Kimberlin to score just 49 seconds into the game.<\/p>\n
Henderson responded quickly, scoring twice in the first quarter. The Bisons nearly tied the score after a 78-yard drive with Dingle scoring from a yard out. The Bisons missed the extra point to make it 14-13 with the Reddies in the lead.<\/p>\n
Just before halftime, Henderson quarterback Andrew Black avoided several tackles to make a pass to the back corner of the end zone for another Reddie touchdown. Henderson State scored again with 1:09 left in the third quarter on a fake punt for a 28-13 lead.<\/p>\n
The Bisons scored once more and had the chance to tie the game late in the fourth quarter after recovering an onside kick at the 50 with only 57 seconds remaining in the game. The Bisons drove to the Reddies’ 25, when Henderson intercepted the ball and claimed the victory.<\/p>\n
For head coach Paul Simmons, the game against Henderson was not only the first of the season but his first as head coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Thursday night game frustrated us because there were so many small things that if we had done something differently, we\u2019d have had that ballgame,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cThe character of our team was very evident, and I think everyone in the locker room just felt like we ran just out of time in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dingle said the team is still in good spirits after the loss and is prepared for this weeks game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it did anything, it brought us closer together,\u201d Dingle said. \u201cWe feel fine. We\u2019re not worried at all. We still have high expectations for this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dingle said the senior leadership this season encourages the whole team to go out and play their best every week.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the reasons I feel so comfortable just going out and playing every Saturday is that I\u2019m surrounded by guys who have been playing at a high level for a long time,\u201d Dingle said. \u201cIt just makes my job all the more easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Kimberlin, the Bisons are focused on their next game at Southern Arkansas University (SAU) and improving each week.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking ahead for the season, we just want to take it one game at a time, really focus on ourselves and not so much who we\u2019re playing,\u201d Kimberlin said. \u201cThis week we\u2019re focused on the little details and getting everything right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simmons said they have high expectations for this week as they face their second game of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the oldest clich\u00e9s in football is that the most improvement that the team makes is between the first and second ballgame,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cI think it\u2019s especially true when you have a young football team with a lot of guys who are talented but not as experienced. So we certainly expect for the Bisons to improve as much as anybody in the country between our first and second game. We\u2019re certainly working in that direction, and I think we will.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bisons will travel to Magnolia, Arkansas, on Saturday, Sept. 9, to play SAU at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The No. 15 ranked Harding Bisons football team had their first loss of the season Thursday, Aug. 31 to Henderson State, 28-20. The game, played at Harding\u2019s First Security Stadium,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14831,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9057\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}