MONTICELLO — Going out of Willis “Convoy” Leslie Cotton Boll Stadium, if only for the season, did not go at all the way the University of Arkansas at Monticello had planned.
Southwestern Oklahoma State scored off three UAM turnovers and totaled 470 yards Saturday before 1,722 in a 49-7 win over the Boll Weevils. UAM, expecting to build a new home venue at some point to replace the 90-year-old, 3,649-seat Cotton Boll, finished the 2025 home slate 1-4 and is riding a four-game slide, matching its longest of the last two seasons.
“Offensively, we’ve got to be consistent, and we just weren’t,” Weevils Coach Hud Jackson said. “Obviously, this team was playing a lot better at this point in the season, and we weren’t. It’s just a head-scratcher in trying to figure that out, what I have to do as a head coach.”
UAM (2-7 overall and Great American) will complete this season by traveling to Northwestern Oklahoma State next Saturday and visiting Southern Arkansas in the Nov. 15 Battle of the Timberlands. Aside from Senior Day and Military Appreciation Day, the Weevils found nothing to celebrate inside Cotton Boll on a cloudy day.
Southwestern (5-4), two years removed from a winless season, has won its third in a row thanks in large part to the efficient passing of M.J. Rivers. The senior was 23 for 29 for 278 yards and 2 touchdowns, including a 19-yard pass to Baylor Nash, the reigning Great American Conference Offensive Player of the Week. Nash caught 5 passes for 71 yards.
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“Just believing in every single one of them, we kind of just say, ‘Next play, next rep’ mentality,” Rivers said. “We keep going, stacking plays and straining for one another, and let the play talk for us.”
The touchdown completed Southwestern’s opening drive, set up by a Damion Dunn interception on a third-and-3 lob by UAM’s Tavion Faulk. The Bulldogs went 7 plays in 77 yards for the early lead.
Rivers created a difficult third-and-8 conversion in the second quarter when he threaded a pass to Nash for 21 yards.
“It speaks to our coaches and kids in this program who keep preparing and keep showing up,” second-year Bulldogs Coach Andrew Rice said. “You watch the way our guys play, and they play so hard for one another. I think that’s huge, and I think that’s M.J. knowing he’s got to do something to make something happen and he goes and does it. A thing I’m most proud of with this program is that I don’t have to deal with a lot of selfishness. We go out there and lay it on the line for one other.”
UAM recovered a fumble the very next play at the Bulldogs 45 and coughed up the ball right back to Southwestern on third-and-1, just another of four turnovers the Weevils committed on the day. Three of those were picks Faulk threw.
The UAM fumble set up an 11-play, 63-yard drive, ending in Red Martel’s 2-yard dive with 4:07 before halftime. Martel had 58 yards on 20 carries.
The miscues, which gave UAM 23 on the season, helped suppress the Weevils’ possession time to 22:46. They totaled 274 yards, rushing 29 times for 149 yards and getting 125 on Faulk’s 9-for-24 passing (37.5%) for his season-low percentage.
“You can’t win football games doing that. You just can’t,” Jackson said of the turnovers. “It’s just a deal that they were doing some things defensively that were confusing us and causing some problems up front, causing Tavion to get outside the pocket and try to make something happen downfield. When you’re doing that, that doesn’t work.”
Southwestern held the opening second-half possession for nearly 9 minutes in starting its breakaway. Freshman backup Braxton Etheridge snuck in for a 1-yard score, his first of two on the day, to complete an 18-play, 75-yard drive.
UAM’s next drive ended on downs, and wideout Isaac Norris hauled in a 24-yard TD pass from Rivers on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Just 3 minutes later, Duce Hart went free on a 40-yard scoring carry to make it a 35-0 Bulldogs lead. Still, the worst stretch for the Weevils had yet to come.
With 9:38 left, Jaylen Sulton ran 9 yards for UAM’s first TD since the second quarter of a 45-10 home loss to Ouachita Baptist two weeks ago. Harding shut out UAM 55-0 last Saturday in Searcy.
In a span of 20 game seconds, Etheridge ran for his second TD from 2 yards out, linebacker Felipe Tristan picked off Faulk and returned it 20 yards for another score, and defensive back Zach Roberts earned his own interception of Faulk. That spurt all but put a cap on a miserable home finale for the Weevils.
Ford Stinson missed a 50-yard field goal wide right on UAM’s second drive of the game. Southwestern collected 28 first downs, 17 more than UAM.
