GEORGETOWN – A late rally for the Southwestern University football team fell short Saturday as the Pirates dropped a heartbreaker 42-21 to Oklahoma Baptist in non-conference action.
Southwestern (0-6) faced an early uphill battle as the Bison raced out to a quick 14-0 lead.
Both scores took less than two minutes off the clock as Oklahoma Baptist (1-5) connected on a 57-yard pass from Cale Grauer to Derek Serowski to take the two score lead at the 11:59 mark in the first quarter.
However the Pirates would answer in a way they had not done all season. Southwestern scored twice in the first quarter.
Dante Smith hooked up with Matt Gillen who caught a pass in the back of the end zone as Smith's pass was deflected off Taylor Stephens and a Bison defender before landing in Gillen's hands. Smith locked in as he finished with his second three touchdown performance and first 300 yard passing game.
The Pirates answered right back to tie the game when they capped an impressive 10 play 69 yard drive on a Dylan Wilburn 10-yard screen pass. The bruising running back took the pass out of the back field for the score and added the two-point conversion as he beat the OBU secondary around the corner with 3:14 left in the first quarter.
Oklahoma Baptist would pull back ahead as Grauer found Nyko Symonds down the sideline for a quick strike. Symonds out-raced the Pirate secondary to the goal line for the 52-yard score giving OBU a 21-14 lead with just over a minute left in the first quarter.
Both defenses stepped up in the second quarter trading punts and interceptions as the offensive fireworks were subdued only briefly.
OBU broke the defensive chains first in the third quarter as the Bison were able to extend the lead on a 9 play 94 yard drive.
Darryl Fields broke free to score from 18-yards out pushing the Bison lead to 28-14 with 8:15 left in the third quarter. Fields was a load out of the back field carrying 19 times for 151 yards and three touchdowns.
Southwestern added one more score attempting to fight back late in the third quarter when Brandon Fleischmann took a screen pass and shook off two defenders as he dove for the pylon and the touchdown. Fleischmann finished with a season-high five catches for 43 yards.
The Bison offense continued to pound away with a solid rushing attack that wore down the Pirate defense. As a team OBU finished with 305 yards on the ground.
Defensively, Southwestern was led by Alex Lee with nine tackles and one sack. Justin Broussard added his SCAC leading fifth sack of the season as Zach Cole and Broussard finished with eight tackles each.
The Pirates will try to rebound next Saturday as they entertain SCAC rival Trinity in a scheduled non-conference matchup. Kickoff from Birkelbach Field is set for 1 p.m.