ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – After getting back on track with a 31-23 victory over Southeastern Oklahoma State inside Carpenter-Haygood Stadium this past Saturday, 4-1 Henderson State will make the trip to Ada, Oklahoma for the first time since 2018 to face the East Central Tigers Saturday, Oct. 8 at 2 p.m.
 
STORYLINES: SETTING THE SCENE
Henderson's win over Southeastern extended its streak of not losing back-to-back regular season games since 2018. This upcoming Saturday, the Reddies look to keep another streak alive as they have won three straight over the Tigers with the last loss coming in 2017. HSU has never lost to ECU in Ada, Oklahoma.
 
After starting the year 0-2, East Central comes into Saturday's contest having won three games in a row. This is the second consecutive season ECU comes into the matchup with Henderson while sporting a winning streak. Last year, the Tigers lost its season-opener before rattling off four straight ahead of the HSU matchup. The Reddies snapped that streak in Arkadelphia, 59-24.  
 
REDDIES REPORT: OFFENSE
After HSU managed to score just 10 points in the opening half against Southeastern, quarterback Landon Ledbetter relieved Andrew Edwards for his first game action since getting hurt in the season-opener. In one half of action, Ledbetter accounted for 187 total yards and two touchdowns. In the two games Ledbetter has seen playing time in this season, he has surpassed 100 yards on the ground and ran for a score in both contests.
 
Ledbetter and running back Korien Burrell each eclipsed 100 rushing yards against the Savage Storm with HSU running for 235 yards as a team. The Reddie duo is the first to run for more than 100 yards each in the same game since Querale Hall (173) and Logan Moragne (165) combined for 338 yards against Oklahoma Baptist back in 2018.
 
Xavier Malone was named this week's GAC Offensive Player of the Week after recording five catches for 163 yards and two touchdowns. Malone has been sensational this season with four straight games of at least 117 receiving yards and one score. The senior wide out leads the nation with eight touchdown receptions and is fifth with 128.8 receiving yards per game.
 
Malone has caught two touchdowns in each of the last three games. He is the first HSU receiver to see three consecutive multi-TD receiving games since Darius Davis in 2013. Malone is also the first receiver since Chad Luttrull in 2000 to have four consecutive games of 100+ receiving yards. That season, Luttrull recorded 1505 yards, which was the second most in program history.
 
As an entire unit, Henderson is third in the conference in points per game (34.6), total yards (460.4) and passing yards (248.0) The Reddies are sixth in rushing offense (212.4). Through five games, HSU is the only team ranked in the top half of the league in both passing and rushing offense.      
 
REDDIES REPORT: DEFENSE – SPECIAL TEAMS
Henderson has the fourth best scoring defense in the league at 23.6 points per game, thanks to holding all five of their opponents below 30 points. A large part of that can be credited to HSU's red zone defense, which is third in the league as teams are only scoring on 64.3 percent of their trips inside the Reddies' 20 yard line, while only 50 percent of those trips have resulted in touchdowns.
 
Defensive coordinator Greg Holsworth's defense continues to be elite at stopping the run as they are only allowing 109.2 yards per game on the ground, including 3.08 yards per rush, which is second in the GAC and 46th in the country. Henderson has held its opponent below 100 rushing yards in back-to-back games.
 
Linebacker Jakob Neel leads the team with 27 total tackles while also tallying two and a half tackles for loss. Both Shaq'ke Robinson and Gary Lewis hold the team-lead with four sacks, while Lewis leads the charge with five quarterback hurries, followed by Keaton Cager with four. The Reddies are second in the league with 18 sacks.
 
The Henderson defense has forced five turnovers this season, averaging one per game, with five different players being the recipient of the turnovers. Senior linebacker Jacob Greenfield recorded his first interception of his career early in the Southeastern game deep in Henderson territory to keep HSU within striking distance after being down 7-3.
 
Against Southeastern, kicker Tristan Heaton connected on all four of his extra points while going 1-for-2 on field goals, which was Heaton's first miss of the season. The Atoscocita High School product did record two punts for 84 yards, including a long of 49 yards. The junior from Humble, Texas has punted 15 times this season for an average of 39.9 per boot.
 
True freshman Jody Easter has established himself as the most explosive return man on Henderson's special teams unit. Easter has returned five kicks this year for an average of 32.8 yards per return. This past Saturday, tallied 92 yards on three kickoff returns, including a long of 48.
 
SCOUTING EAST CENTRAL
After scoring a combined 25 points through the first two weeks, East Central nearly doubled that scoring output in week three, defeating Southern Nazarene 44-21 for ECU's first win of the season. Since then, the Tigers have scored over 30 points in every game and have allowed just 25 total points in the past two weeks after giving up over 25 in each of the first two games to open the season.
 
In its most recent outing, ECU gashed Southern Arkansas for 523 total yards, including 309 yards through the air, averaging 14.7 yards per completion. Defensively, the Tigers recorded five tackles for loss, two sacks and two turnovers in route to a 34-22 victory in Magnolia.
 
During this three-game winning streak, East Central has averaged 482 yards of total offense. Sophomore running back Nemier Herod has been on his own tear during that span, averaging 132 yards on the ground and a touchdown per contest. Herrod is eighth in the league with 92.8 rushing yards per game.
 
After a slow start to the season for sophomore wide receiver La'Quan Wells where he totaled 53 receiving yards and one touchdown through the first two games, Wells has gone off for 312 yards and four touchdowns in his last three outings. The Idabel, Oklahoma native made the most of his four receptions against Southern Arkansas, registering 107 yards and two touchdowns.
 
The East Central offense boasts the No. 5 passing attack in the league with 235 yards through the air per game, despite averaging just 178 yards after the first two contests. Quarterback Kenny Hrncir, as has ECU's other offensive weapons, has found his rhythm in his last three game appearances, averaging just over 254 passing yards per game.
 
The Tigers field one of the best defenses in the GAC, holding opponents to 22 points and 363.2 total yards per game, both of which are third best behind only No. 5 Ouachita Baptist and No. 11 Harding. While its rush defense is middle of the pack allowing 205.4 yards per outing, East Central's pass defense ranks second after only giving up 157.8 yards through the air.
 
Safety Cody Alexander and linebacker Devon Roush have both exceeded 35 tackles on the season while Alexander has three forced fumbles on the year to lead the entire conference. As a team, ECU has forced 11 fumbles, while recovering nine of them. Roush's fellow-linebacker Michael Onwuzurike leads the unit with three sacks and five tackles for loss, including two forced fumbles.  
 
THE COACHING MATCHUP
The 2022 campaign has been a season of note for Henderson St. head coach Scott Maxfield. After becoming the winningest coach in program history with 120 career victories – now 121 – against Arkansas-Monticello, Maxfield recorded his 150th all-time coaching victory after defeating Southeastern Oklahoma State. The HSU head ball coach has only lost to ECU twice in his 17 seasons in Arkadelphia.
 
East Central is led by first-year interim head coach Kris McCullough. McCullough served as ECU's offensive coordinator in 2020 and assistant head coach in 2021. Prior to his time in Ada, McCullough got his start right here in Arkadelphia, where he was a student assistant coach for the offense under Maxfield before graduating from HSU.  
 
THE LAST MEETING
Then-No. 9 Henderson put an end to East Central's four-game winning streak, defeating the Tigers inside Carpenter-Haygood Stadium, 59-24. The Reddies got after ECU in a hurry, scoring 21 points in the first quarter before seeing a halftime advantage of 35-7. It was an offensive clinic for HSU as they accounted for 559 total yards while running 75 offensive plays.
 
Former-Reddie quarterback Adam Morse threw six touchdowns, three of which went to L'liott Curry. Xavier Malone followed Curry with six catches for 134 yards and one score, while Landon Ledbetter relieved Morse amidst the rout, finding the endzone on one keeper. Korien Burrell had five carries for 35 yards as he was second on the team behind Ledbetter with 7.0 yards per rush.
 
The Reddie defense picked off ECU quarterback Kenny Hrncir three times as former-Reddies Dedric O'Bryant tallied two and Patrick Jones came away with one. Jayden Ford logged two quarterback hurries, a forced fumble and a sack while Jacob Greenfield led the unit with six tackles, including one tackle for loss.
 
TICKETING INFORMATION
East Central University has adopted HomeTown Ticketing as their new digital ticketing system. Ticket purchasing for any home ECU contest will now be done through the HomeTown Ticketing Fan App. Fans are encouraged to purchase their tickets ahead of time if they plan to come to the game. Tickets can be purchased HERE.
 
WHERE TO LISTEN
The game will be broadcast and available by the Henderson State Sports Network on KDEL 100.9 FM and KVRC 1240 AM in Arkadelphia, KWPS 99.7 FM in Hot Springs, KYXK 106.7 FM in Gurdon, and KZYP 104.1 FM/1310 AM in Malvern. Coverage begins one hour prior to kickoff.