Football Readies for ECU

October 23, 2009

A large Homecoming crowd is expected to give Southwestern Oklahoma State University a considerable boost in Saturday's football game against longtime rival East Central University. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. at Milam Stadium in Weatherford.

The Bulldogs are coming off their best showing of the year last week in a hard-fought 41-23 loss to Central Oklahoma. SWOSU led 14-0 early and were within a field goal at the start of the fourth quarter before the Bronchos pulled away.

SWOSU's offense looked crisp moving the ball and finishing with season highs in total yards (318), first downs (23) and points (23). Three of SWOSU's four scoring drives were of 60 yards or more.

Quarterback Steve Day had his best game of the year completing 25-of-44 passes for 255 yards and threw touchdowns with no interceptions.

Additional offensive spark was provided by Bruce Hatton who finished with a season-best 143 all-pupose yards. Hatton had 10 rushing yards on seven carries, returned three kickofss for 61 yards and caught six passes for 72 yards, including a 33-yard TD pass at the game's end.

Defensively the Bulldogs came up with two fumbles and helped set up an easy score by recovering the ball on UCO's own 16-yard line.

Shane Scott had 15 tackles and moved to within one of leader Fred Leak for the top spot on the team's tackle chart. Leak has 71 with Scott next at 70. Jaron Burges is close behind with 65.

SWOSU has played better since Lone Star Conference North division play began and have their best chance of victory against the winless Tigers.

ECU, like SWOSU, has improved over the last few weeks. It took the Tigers until Week 7 before they scored 10 or more points in a game. Last week, ECU had a 14-point lead over LSC North leader Texas A&M-Commerce before the Lions scored the game's final 17 points to win 31-28. ECU has started three different quarterbacks this year and have moved Marcus Johnson, the LSC North Preseason Player-of-the-Year, to wide receiver after three starts at quarterback.

Josh Phillips is expected to start against SWOSU after Lucas Peters, who started the season as a student-assistant coach, was given the job for two weeks while Phillips mended from injuries.

After ECU, SWOSU will close out its 2009 season with two more home games against Oklahoma Panhandle State University (Oct. 31) and Texas A&M-Commerce (Nov. 7). Both games will kickoff at 2 p.m.