• Photo Showcase: Ouachita Baptist 38, UNO 23

• Box Score: Ouachita Baptist 38, UNO 23

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There are times that breaks, mistakes or injuries are the difference in a football game.

This wasn’t one of them.

Ouachita Baptist overwhelmed UNO 38-23 before 3,041 Thursday night at Caniglia Field, dropping the proud Maverick program to 0-2 for the first time since 2002.

All that stands between the Mavs and their first 0-3 start since coach Pat Behrns’ first season of 1994 is defending national champion Northwest Missouri State on Sept. 18.

“That’s as talented a football team as we’ve ever had come in here,” Behrns said, fully aware that national-championship caliber teams from Northwest are frequent visitors to Omaha. “That team compares to the top one or two teams in our conference.

“They can play with anybody we’ve ever had on our schedule. Now, we need to play better, but that was a very good football team.”

For much of the first half, UNO looked as overmatched as it had in a 42-0 loss to Northwest two years ago or as it did in a 59-14 ambush at South Dakota in 2005.

Yet, despite trailing 14-0 before they had picked up a first down, the Mavs somehow were down only 14-10 before giving up a deflating score late in the first half.

Then came the second half, as OBU rode a 69-yard touchdown run by Daniel McGee and a 64-yard pass from Eli Cranor to Phillip Supernaw that set up another score for a 35-10 lead. It was 38-10 before UNO tacked on two late scores.

After getting within 38-23, UNO had a chance to get the ball back near midfield with just under three minutes to play, but Adolph Overstreet muffed a punt. OBU had the ball at the Mav 1 before letting the clock run out.

“This is a huge win for us because of the history and the things that they do at the University of Nebraska at Omaha,” said OBU coach Todd Knight, whose program is picked only sixth in the Gulf South Conference and didn’t have a winning season from 1988 through 2007. “I’ve got a lot of respect for that guy (Behrns). He’ll be back. You can’t count him out. He’s got a good football team.”

Cranor, rarely pressured, picked apart the UNO coverage while completing 30 of 38 passes for 332 yards. McGee rushed for 180 yards and two touchdowns. Supernaw caught eight passes for 120. The Tigers rolled to 557 yards of offense.

“They had a very good plan, executed it well, and we couldn’t get the ball away from them,” Behrns said.

UNO quarterback Jon Daniels, who played well after entering the game on the third series of the first quarter for starter John Teigland, had two third-quarter turnovers that stunted the comeback. Daniels lost a fumble at the Tiger 30 and threw an interception in the red zone.

“I was ready to go,” Daniels said. “We were fired up at half and thought we were going to win the game. Then ... I turned the ball over twice.”
McGee’s score came after the fumble and made it 28-10.

UNO punted it back after three plays, and the 64-yard pass set up Cranor’s 1-yard plunge that made it 35-10.

Teigland, 0 for 3 to start the game, looked good when he returned with the Mavs trailing 38-10. He completed all three of his passes on a quick 58-yard drive capped by a 21-yard scoring strike to Overstreet, then found Austin Wells on a 14-yard touchdown that made it 38-23.

You could start a game worse. But the Mavs had two quick three-and-outs and then saw the Tigers put together two long scoring drives to fall into a 14-0 hole.

Behrns, still alternating his quarterbacks, said he went with Daniels a couple of series earlier than he might have.

“You’ve got to give yourself a chance early,” Behrns said. “You’ve got to get first downs and we didn’t do that.”

Cranor was 10 for 10 for 92 yards in the first quarter and did whatever he wanted. He completed his first 13 passes and was 23 for 29 for 210 yards in the first half.

“This team didn’t really bring a lot of stuff that made us (check to) hot,” Cranor said. “They sat back in coverage. Up front they had some big old boys, but we did a good job of protecting. And when they did start coming through and I had to throw it fast, I hung some of our receivers out to dry — but they made every catch.”

A blocked punt caused by Shaquil Barrett’s bull rush appeared to swing momentum the Mavs’ way. Daniels hit Brian Miller on a 32-yard touchdown pass on the next play, and UNO was within 14-10 with 2:21 left in the half.

But disappointment was around the corner.

On third-and-12 from the UNO 32, safety Micah Fisher had a potential interception deflect off his hands, and then cornerback Bruce Harris was called for interference on fourth down, moving the ball to the Mav 17.

Cranor then dropped one off to Nico Hobbs in the flat, and Hobbs skittered into the end zone with 9.8 seconds left, making it 21-10.

“I’ll tell you what, that was pretty big,” Knight said. “We were really concerned, especially with our kicking game. That was huge momentum.”

Contact the writer:

444-1027, rob.white@owh.com

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