KJ Johnson rushed for 137 yards and three scores in the first half as the Ouachita Baptist football team won its second straight, beating West Georgia, 41-17, Saturday afternoon at A.U. Williams Field in a Gulf South Conference opener for both schools.
Johnson, a native of Monroe, La., got his first score on a 70-yard run and added to that with runs of 34 and nine yards. He finished with 14 carries for 183 yards to lead all rushers.
Despite the big effort of Johnson in the first half, the game hit a 45-minute delay with 6:12 left in the third quarter because of lightning.
Ouachita Baptist (2-0 overall, 1-0 GSC) took advantage of a West Georgia turnover by going 80 yards in 10 plays with Lance Parker connecting with Julius Pruitt for an 11-yard touchdown. Johnson’s 70-yard burst down the right sideline with 7:33 remaining in the first quarter gave the Tigers a 14-0 lead.
West Georgia (0-3, 0-1) battled back as Jared Guberman hit a 39-yard field goal with 4:19 left in the first and Sean Gray found James Crowley for a 30-yard strike to cut the Tigers lead to 14-10 with 13:56 remaining in the first half.
Ouachita Baptist capitalized on a pair of West Georgia turnovers as Johnson scored on runs of 34 and nine yards to give the Tigers a 28-10 halftime lead.
After the lightning delay, the Tigers added to the lead when Bob Ruffing scored on a 10-yard pass by Parker with 4:52 left in the third quarter. Ouachita Baptist capped the scoring when Jerrad Nutt caught a 26-yard pass from Parker with 8:06 remaining to give the Tigers a commanding 41-10 advantage.
West Georgia tried to cut the margin with 5:49 left as Kyle Padgett connected with Wilson Kimble 24 yards for the score to trim the deficit to 41-17.
Parker was 13-of-22 passing for 149 yards and three scores. Nutt finished with six catches for 97 yards to lead all Ouachita Baptist receivers.
Defensively, Antwon Thompson and Chris McAlpine led Ouachita Baptist with seven tackles each. Thompson had three pass breakups, while forcing one of the Wolves’ four fumbles. Jerry McNeil and Blake Burkett had six tackles with Burkett picking off Gray.
Gray threw for 295 yards on 25-of-47 passing. Dustin Lindsey carried the ball 11 times for 45 yards and Kimble caught 10 passes for 106 yards to pace West Georgia’s offense.
The Wolves racked up 483 yards of offense on 80 plays. Meanwhile, Ouachita Baptist had 458 yards in 65 plays.
The Tigers go on the road for the first time this season, traveling 6:00 p.m., central time, Saturday, Sept. 20 to Valdosta State. The game can be heard on the Ouachita Football Network through the following stations: Arkadelphia (KYXK-FM 106.9); Hot Springs (KBHS-AM 1420); Magnolia (KVMA-AM 630); El Dorado (KELD-FM 106.5); Nashville (KNAS-FM 105.5); Mena (KQOR-FM 105.3) or on the web at: mms://rain.obu.edu/tigerathletics/
