ARKADELPHIA, Ark. - For the first time in 322 days, Reddie Football played in front of its home fans on Carpenter-Haygood Stadium on Saturday night. Thanks to a career night from junior quarterback Andrew Edwards, Henderson State (2-0) sent those fans home happy with a 34-17 win over Southeastern Oklahoma State (0-2).
Southeastern's Kaleb Whitley fired up the visiting sideline by returning the opening kickoff 94 yards for a score. The Reddies responded by hitting pay dirt on their first two offensive drives of the night, with both being capped off by a Jeremiah Davis rushing touchdown. After one quarter, Henderson State led 13-10. That score held firm into the halftime break.
On the first drive of the second half, Edwards connected with wide receiver Jody Easter for a 60-yard scoring strike. With just over two minutes to go in the third quarter, the Savage Storm's Cergio Perez found Matthew Nunez for a touchdown to help cut the Reddie lead back to three.
After three tightly-contested quarters, HSU finally pulled away in the fourth with two touchdown passes from Edwards. Bryson Corbin caught the first of these two scores on a 13-yard play with just over 12 minutes to go in the game. Less than two minutes later, Jalen Abraham posted a 50-yard touchdown reception to provide the game with its final score.
Edwards finished the game with a career-high 443 yards and three touchdowns. He is the first Reddie quarterback to throw for over 400 yards in a game since 2021. The Bentonville native added 23 yards on the ground to bring his total yardage to 466 - also a career best.
Timieone Jackson paced the team with 10 receptions for 112 yards. Jody Easter and Jalen Abraham both finished with over 60 yards and touchdown apiece. Cayden Davis, Elijah George, and Frederick O'Donald all had catches that went for more than 20 yards.
On the ground, Jeremiah Davis led the way 75 rushing yards and the aforementioned two scores. O'Donald ran three times for 21 yards before making an early exit.
On defense, Gary Lewis led a strong team effort with five total tackles, including 1.5 tackles for loss and a sack. Jordan Owens and Gerard Culotta both came up with a tackle for loss, while Tim Jennings, Jakobe Shell, and Cliff Mosley all contributed to assisted tackles behind the line of scrimmage.
On special teams, Halid Djibril recovered a muffed kickoff in what proved to be Southeastern's only turnover of the night. Still, Henderson's defense forced the Savage Storm to punt a combined nine times.
With tonight's victory, HSU's Greg Holsworth is now 1-0 as a head coach at Carpenter-Haygood Stadium. Next week, his Reddies will look to successfully defend their home turf again against Arkansas Tech on Family Day. That showdown with the Wonder Boys will kick off at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 21.
