Ouachita flag football team travels to state tournment

T he moment Team OBU arrived to the state intramural football tournament, they knew it was going to be a tremendous challenge. Little did they know, it was one that would take them through a two-day roller coaster of a ride. Led by strong offensive play, the Tigers averaged 28 points a game, scoring 24 touchdowns in six games.

Captain and quarterback, junior Jeff “Juice” Garner threw seven of those touchdown passes to teammate sophomore Justin James, and divided much of the rest to the talents of senior Josh “Fresh” Crosby, sophomore Jake Carter and freshman Beau Landers.

For the first game they were matched against cross-town rival Henderson. In a back and forth game, Ouachita tied it up with a minute left, sending the game to overtime. However, Team OBU lost a nail biter 33-32 in triple overtime to start 0-1 in pool play.

In the second game, Team Ouachita lost by one point to Shenanigans from Arkansas Tech.

In the third game in seven hours, Team Ouachita had to defeat a Phi Sigma team from UCA to stay alive and advance into bracket play. They won by one point.

Due to a forfeit from Henderson, because of illegal players, Ouachita advanced.

In bracket play, Ouachita played Saturday night against another fraternity team from UCA, holding UCA off late, to win 32-27.

Advancing to the quarterfinals, Ouachita was paired with the only team to that point who was undefeated and had not been scored on all tournament, En Fuego from Arkansas Tech. Garner threw two consecutive touchdowns to Crosby to take a 14-0 lead at halftime, finishing with a 28-25 win.

That victory put the team in the semi-finals paired with O-Zone of John Brown University. Ouachita took a 13-0 lead in the first half, and lead by 9 points with one minute remaining. JBU was able to tie the game and send it into overtime. Ouachita scored first but did not convert on the extra point. JBU answered with a TD and extra point, defeating Team OBU and dashing their hopes of a state title.

Even with the loss at the end, Ouachita was two points away from going to the state championship with a team that, for the most part, had never played together.

“It was an incredible experience,” Garner said. “I’ll never forget [getting] to meet all kinds of new people and the competition of the teams.“