Arkansas St. 14, Army 6

JONESBORO, Ark. (AP)—Gaining 140 yards in his first college game pleased Reggie Arnold. Carrying 25 times without a fumble pleased his coach even more.

“That’s just a heck of an effort for a freshman,” Arkansas State coach Steve Roberts said after his team’s 14-6 victory over Army in a rare home opener. “He probably got a little tired; may have run him a little too much. I know he won’t say that.”

Arkansas State, from the Sun Belt Conference, traditionally opens on the road, taking payouts from powerhouses as teams from mid-major conferences often do. It opened in Jonesboro for only the second time since 1988, and for the first time since 1995—the last time the Indians ended the year with a winning record.

Army, in its 123rd of football, opened on the road for only the seventh time; its first road opener was in 1965. It has lost each of those games.

Army (0-1) benefited early from good field position following an Arkansas State punt—taking a 3-0 lead on Austin Miller’s 26-yard field goal—but then the Indians dominated.

By halftime, Arkansas State (1-0) had 242 yards of offense to the Black Knights’ 75, but the Indians fumbled twice after moving inside the Army 15. The Indians finished with 319 yards of offense to Army’s 164.

Arnold scored on a 17-yard run with 3:52 left in the second quarter—one of only two Indians’ possessions that didn’t see Arkansas State self-destruct with a turnover, missed field goal or untimely penalty.

“It was a big hole,” said Arnold, a redshirt freshman “The offensive line just pounded and pounded on them and eventually I knew they were going to break.

“It felt good just getting back into it after sitting out last year, trying to get back and show the coaches that I can carry the load,” Arnold said.

At the end of the game, Arkansas State students needed only 30 seconds to take down the stadium’s south goal post, but the crossbar at the north end stubbornly stayed erect.

The game grew increasingly frustrating for Army in the second half. Chase McCoy slipped at the 18 as he fielded the third-quarter kickoff, three consecutive plays lost yardage and Owen Tolson punted only 16 yards to the Army 27.

Arnold carried 17 yards to the right to move the ball to the 10, and quarterback Travis Hewitt ran the final 10 yards for the Indians, hitting the goal line pylon with the ball to push the Indians’ lead to 14-3 three minutes into the third quarter.

Hewitt was 7-of-11 passing for 75 yards.

The Golden Knights gained only 30 yards on their next two drives and punted twice more in the third quarter. Miller added a 36-yard field goal with 6:41 left in the game after Arkansas State’s Daylan Walker muffed a punt and Army’s John Laird recovered at the 10.

Wesley McMahand carried for 7 yards on the next play, but penalties wiped out the progress.

“We were on their 3-yard line, second-and-goal and we had two penalties in a row,” Army coach Bobby Ross said. “Later on, we ran patterns that we called … and we come up a yard short on the first down two times.

“We cannot do those kinds of things as a football team,” Ross said.

Arkansas State’s Koby McKinnon intercepted David Pevoto’s pass at the Indians’ 20 and returned it 51 yards to end an Army drive in the last two minutes.

Two fifth-year senior linemen sat out Saturday’s game for Army after one of its opponents questioned whether they burned a year of eligibility when they practiced with an Army prep school team as freshman. Center Pete Bier and guard Dan Evans were held out pending an appeal to the NCAA, senior associate athletic director Bob Beretta said.