Despite a career-high performance by quarter Evan Lassiter, Henderson State's second half rally fell short as East Central beat the Reddies 24-16, Saturday at Carpenter-Haygood Stadium/Ruggles Field.

East Central scored on its first four possessions taking advantage of a pair of Henderson State miscues.

The Tigers took the opening kickoff and 74 yards on 8 plays with Rayjon Austin-Ramsey connecting with Devyn Williams for a 34-yard score.

On Henderson's first possession, the Reddies moved the ball into ECU territory before Fernando Van Hook fumbled the football with Dewayne Finney recovering on the Tiger 44.

ECU quickly capitalized as Austin-Ramsey hit Dilland Gardner on a 5 yard jump pass to make the score 14-0 with 3:13 remaining in the first quarter.

Again the Reddies drove deep into Tiger territory before RJ Williams intercepted an Lassiter pass in the red zone and returned it to Reddie 49.

Four plays later, Austin-Ramsey found Williams again in the corner of the end zone from 14 yards to increase the lead to 21-0.

The Reddies got on the board on their next possession as Julio Cervantes booted a 25-yard field goal to cap off a 12-play, 56-yard drive. Big plays during the drive included a 14-yard run by Blake Faulk and a Lassiter to John Murray pass for 14 yards.

The Tigers responded just before half with a Bobby Schmidt 26-yard field goal to make the score 24-3 at the break.

After a scoreless third quarter, the Reddies scored with 8:43 left in the game as Lassiter hit Ben Johnson for a 5-yard strike to complete a 15-play, 93-yard drive.

Lassiter completed 9-of-13 passes on the drive for 79 yards including a 31-yard toss to Johnson on 3rd-and-7 and a 6-yard pass to John Murray to convert a 4^th-and-4 to keep the drive alive.

The Reddie defense forced a three-and-out on ECU's next possession, with Henderson beginning the drive on its own 20.

On 4^th-and-goal on the ECU 2, Jerry Rodriguez caught his first touchdown pass of the year to make the score 24-16.

Henderson would not get the ball back as ECU was able to pick up a pair of first downs to run out the clock.

After totaling just 142 yards of offense, the Reddies finished the game with 411 yards. ECU totaled 252 yards in the opening half, but Henderson's defense limited the Tigers to 85 yards in the second-half.  

Lassiter completed 41-of-60 passes for 322 yards completing passes to 12 different receivers with Black having seven catches for 66 yards.

Johnson added 59 yards on 5 receptions, while Fernando Van Hook had 45 yards on 6 grabs.

Trevor Pipkin led the Henderson defense with nine tackles while Sam Johnson had seven tackles including two for lost yardage.

Henderson State will play its final home game next Saturday when the Reddies play host to Southern Arkansas with kickoff slated for 2:05 p.m. at Carpenter-Haygood Stadium/Ruggles Field. The game will be televised on ESPN3.