Football | 11/15/2019 11:44:00 PM
Oklahoma Panhandle State University, in what will be the career-finale for nine OPSU seniors, will close out the 2019 football season at home versus Lyon College, from Batesvile, Ark. Capping their time in the Crimson & Blue that afternoon will be:
Colton Ellisor,
Charoy Joseph,
Kyler Musgrave,
Carlos Ransburgh,
Diamante Pounds,
D'Darrin Primes,
Tony Redmond and
DJ Scott (who will all be honored in a pre-game ceremony).
Heading into the final weekend of the 2019 season, the Aggies (3-6, 3-4 SAC),currently occupy fifth place in the Sooner Athletic Conference (along with Wayland Baptist). The Scots 6-3, 5-2 SAC) are tied for third place with Arizona Christian University.
Lyon has, to its credit, a SAC victory of seismic proportions two weeks ago when the Scots knocked off nationally-ranked Ottawa-Arizona, 18-14, on the road. LC is coming off of a heartbreaking setback at home last week, losing to Arizona Christian, 9-7.
The Scots rank among the SAC leaders in Passing Offense (3rd/216.3 y.p.g.), Scoring Offense (4th/25.7 p.p.g.), Scoring Defense (3rd/23.6 p.p.g.), Least Penalized (7th/66.1 y.p.g.) and Punts (39.5 y.p.p.). Lyon is tied with Panhandle State for Turnover Margin (3rd/+0.10 p..).
The Aggie team is third in the SAC for Rushing Yards (172.8 p.g.), bolstered by quarterback
Tony Brown's average of 101.1 yards per contest (which ranks second for the SAC, individually.
Panhandle State is the SAC's least penalized team, as well, being flagged just 61 times and for an average of only 63.9 yards per game.
Individually for OPSU, Brown is also fifth in both Total Offense (176.0 y.p.g.) and scoring (6.0 p.p.g.). He also owns the third-best game rushing total for the SAC this season, when he galloped for 225 yards versus Ottawa-Arizona.
On the defensive side of the football, the returning all-American linebacker Pounds is having another solid season. Pounds leads the entire SAC with an average of 10.1 tackles per game. His 56 solo tackles is also the most of any other player in the circuit. Pounds is coming off of back-to-back games of 16 tackles each.
Joseph is tied for fourth in the SAC for Interception (0.3 p.g.).
Malik Brown ranks second in Passes Defended (1.2 p.g.), Smiley is tied for fifth in Sacks (0.9 p.g.) and Primes is tied for second in Fumbles Forced (0.3 p.g.).
As a team, the Aggies are coming off of a 35-0 shellacking of SAGU last Saturday in Goodwell. In the win over SAGU, Panhandle only threw the ball 17 times, rolled up 219 yards on the ground, had a "pick-6" touchdown and four sacks. Two of the OPSU losses in 2019 have come against NAIA top-20 teams, as well as one versus an NCAA Division I FCS opponent.
This will be just the third meeting between Lyon and Panhandle State in football, with the teams splitting the first two meetings. OPSU won the inaugural meeting in 2017 (42-21) and lost in 2018 (29-16) on the road.
