Football | 9/26/2018 9:59:00 AM
Goodwell, Okla.—Coming off a two game winning streak, including a Homecoming victory against Wayland Baptist, the Aggies will head off to their first of three road games to take on Lyon College in Batesville, Ark. on Sept. 29 at 5 p.m.
Head Coach
Russell Gaskamp notes, "This is a critical three-game stretch," including two road conference games and a big match against Louisiana's Grambling State University over the three-week stint away from home. "Getting this first win will be essential in staying in the conference race," Gaskamp continued. With a significant weight on conquering the road opponents, Gaskamp commends his team for their focus and ability to travel well over the past few years. This will be a Homecoming game for Lyon College, making for a game of high pressure emotions and crowd intensity. However, the Aggies are running with good momentum off their back-to-back wins.
"We have been going through a lot of personnel change, especially on offense, but we are working on getting all our pieces into place," says Gaskamp. With the lead quarterback position still up for grabs and key running backs
Orlando Haymon and
RJ Stevens out indeterminately, the Aggies will likely continue to introduce some new faces to the field over the next few weeks. Junior RB
Carlos Ransburgh will be stepping in to up to pick up the rushing slack after coming off the win against Wayland increasing in attempts and averaging 4.2 yards per carry. "We need to figure out how to be explosive offensively and create bigger plays," continues Gaskamp, though defensively, he feels they are finally heading in the right direction. Junior defensive backs
William Johnson,
Kory Cullum and
Diamante Pounds have been excelling in each contest and boasted a good showing against Wayland, with Pounds leading the trio with total of 21 take-downs on the season so far. Gaskamp extols, "We are finally playing at the level I imagined we could play at at the start of the season on the defensive side of the ball." He continued with praise on the Aggie's special teams unit, commending both incoming freshman kickers
Eduardo Villarreal and
Javier Medina for their progressive season start and stellar performance against Wayland.
The Aggies have a long road ahead but will look to take home an early victory against the Lyon College Scots. Taking place in Batesville, Ark, kickoff will be at 5 p.m. at the Scots' Pioneer Stadium. Live streaming and stats of the game will be available online at opsuaggies.com for those wishing to watch from home. After Lyon College, the Aggies will face two more road challenges over the following two weeks, against Grambling State University and Texas Wesleyan University respectively, before returning home to face the Arizona Christian Firestorm at Anchor D Stadium on Oct. 20.
