ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — Henderson State led with under a minute to play on Saturday evening, but Southwestern Oklahoma State produced a one minute, 80-yard touchdown drive to take the lead with 28 seconds left and held on in the final moments to defeat the Reddies 35-31 at Carpenter-Haygood Stadium and Ruggles Field.

The Reddies (1-3) led for the majority of the contest, but found themselves trailing at the 12:02 mark of the fourth quarter, after a 21-yard touchdown pass from the Bulldogs (2-2) gave them their first lead of the night, 28-24.

Henderson's response was picture-perfect, as the Reddies ensuing drive went 75 yards in 12 plays, took 6:30 off of the clock and was capped by a six-yard touchdown pass from Richard Stammetti to Doug Johnson, which helped HSU retake the lead 31-28 with 5:32 left.

SWOSU's next drive stalled when they failed to convert a 4th-and-7 at the Henderson 42-yard line. With a chance to put the game away, the Reddies could not muster any offensive production, as three-straight handoffs took 1:07 off of the clock, but gained no yards, forcing the Reddies to punt the ball back to the Bulldogs with 1:28 to go in the game.

After taking over on their own 20-yard line, the Bulldogs were surgical on their way to the go-ahead score, as SWOSU needed just one minute and seven plays to find the end zone on a 15-yard touchdown strike from Casey Freeman to J.R. Omigie. The score helped SWOSU seize a 35-31 advantage with 28 seconds to play. 

Needing a touchdown with little time remaining, the Henderson offense was able to move the ball down to the Bulldogs' 20-yard line with two seconds left, but Stammetti's final throw to the end zone was broken up before it could reach Johnson's hands and SWOSU held on for the 35-31 win.

Stammetti was the catalyst on offense for Henderson on the night and finished 34-of-55 for 365 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions. John Murray went over 100 yards receiving for the second-straight game and caught nine passes for 135 yards and a touchdown, while Ben Johnson caught 11 passes for 126 yards and a score of his own. Cobra Jones led the Reddies on the ground with 76 rushing yards on 13 carries. Bowen Sweeney had a game-high 10 tackles on the defensive side of the ball, which included two tackles for loss. SWOSU's J.R. Omigie led the Bulldogs with eight catches for 219 yards and a score and averaged over 27 yards per catch.

Henderson scored on the game's first play when Stammetti hit Murray for a 52-yard touchdown, then punched it in on the next drive as well on a 1-yard Logan Moragne run to jump out to a 14-0 lead.

SWOSU scored late in the first quarter and early in the second to tie the game at 14-14, but the Reddies got an 18-yard scoring catch from Johnson and a 22-yard Temo Martinez field goal to lead 24-14 at the half. The Bulldogs out-scored HSU 21-7 in the game's final 30 minutes.

The Reddies next game is on Saturday, Sept. 29, when they travel to Bethany, Oklahoma, to play Southern Nazarene at 1 p.m.