SURPRISE, Ariz. – The OUAZ football team won consecutive games for the first time in school history with a 63-14 decision over Texas College on Saturday night in Sooner Athletic Conference play at Spirit Field.
Shamar Moreland stole the show for OUAZ (4-3, 3-3 SAC) with 423 all-purpose yards and five touchdowns accounted for. Moreland ran for two touchdowns, returned a punt 53 yards for a score, returned a kickoff 84 yards for a touchdown, and he threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to
D'Montae Williams.
The Spirit finished the night with 566 yards of total offense, including a season high 303 yards rushing. They converted 22 first downs and ran 71 plays during their 29 minutes, 54 seconds of possession.
Texas College (0-4, 0-4) gained 270 yards of offense with 159 coming in the ground. OUAZ held the Steers to 4.4 yards per play and forced one turnover. The Spirit recorded 13 tackles-for-loss and four sacks.
Moreland gained 151 yards rushing on just five carries.
Joshua Vizcaya had seven rushes for 93 yards and one score while
Kristopher Ewens added 55 yards on 10 carries.
Austin McCullough completed 16 of 33 passes for 239 yards and two touchdowns. Williams led the team with 97 yards on four receptions.
Marcelous Chester-Riley added four catches for 57 yards and a touchdown.
OUAZ operated with a short field for most of the night, ending the game with an average starting field position of the 50-yardline. They Spirit did struggle in the red zone with just three conversions – all field goals – on five trips.
John Williams converted those kicks from 30 yards and twice from 27 yards.
Amara Burks led the Spirit defense with nine tackles.
Kenneth Steele Jr. added seven tackles, 3.5 tackles-for-loss and two sacks.
Alema Collins and
Maverick Bradford also had sacks in the win.
Saturday's win has OUAZ into fifth-place in the SAC standings and just one-game out of second. The Spirit are now headed into two weeks off before returning to action on November 3 when they host Wayland Baptist at Spirit Field at 7 p.m.
SPIRIT NOTES
Saturday is the fifth time this season OUAZ has scored at least 50 points and the second straight week with at least 60 points.
The Spirit scored 28 points in the second quarter to record their third quarter this season with 28 or more points scored.
With 641 kick return yards, OUAZ held Texas College to 4.3 net yards per kickoff.
This is the first game this season the Spirit didn't throw for 300-plus yards after finishing with 263.
OUAZ was just 4 of 15 on third-down offensively while holding the Steers to 1 of 13.
Tonight was just the second time this season OUAZ didn't commit a turnover with the other coming at Langston.
This is the second time this season Moreland has accounted for more than 300 all-purpose yards in a game (308 vs. Langston).
Steele recorded multiple sacks in a game for the fourth time this season while extending his run to five straight games with at least one-half sack.
Austin Bohn had another 50-plus yard punt, giving him seven on the season.
Williams saw his run of consecutive PATs made end at 34 with his miss in the second quarter.
With three field goals made, Williams has now made six straight FG attempts.
