Tulsa captures home football opener over UAPB

Things looked shaky at first, but Tulsa eventually got on a roll and went smooth sailing in a 42-7 victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff in its season opener Thursday night at Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium, marking the debut for new coach Kevin Wilson.

Cardell Williams came off the bench in relief of an injured Braylin Braxton, threw three touchdown passes and ran for another in the second quarter to give the Golden Hurricane (1-0) a 28-7 lead at halftime.

Williams entered with 6:19 left in the first quarter to start Tulsa’s fourth possession. He overcame getting sacked twice, throwing for 233 yards on 13-of-14 attempts.

Before Williams entered, the Hurricane turned the ball over three times, including an interception that set up the Golden Lions’ only score.

The pick made by Kyre Williams came on the third play of the game and was returned 17 yards to the Tulsa 18-yard line. Four plays later, Michael Jamerson scored from a yard out, and UAPB was ahead 7-0. No more points would be made by the visitor, but it would have momentum while sitting on the lead through the opening period.

After Jordan Ford made an impressive return to midfield for Tulsa, he fumbled and UAPB recovered. It was part of a chain of a turnover-fest as Kanion Williams intercepted a Lions’ pass to get the ball back for Tulsa. Then Braxton threw his second pick. The chain finally snapped as UAPB was forced to punt on the next drive.

When Williams came in, Tulsa moved to the UAPB 41 before having to punt. However, starting at midfield, he led Tulsa on an 8-play drive, capping it with a 3-yard TD keeper around the right side, and it was a tie ball game at 7-all early in the second quarter.

“Unfortunately, Braylon got an ankle injury,” Wilson said. “I don’t think it’s severe, but severe enough that he really couldn’t put some weight on it. We’ll see how it goes here from day-to-day, week-to-week. I think it’s just some degree of a sprain. We’ll see if it’s high or low and figure that out.”

Tulsa would score on its next three drives with Williams, who was named to the American Athletic Conference Weekly Honor Roll, throwing his TD passes. The first was an 80-yard beauty to Marquis Shoulders, who was wide open and sprinted down the sideline after the catch, putting TU up 14-7.

The next Williams touchdown pass was a 15-yarder to Malachai Jones, followed by his second to Shoulders for 19 yards with 1:13 to go before intermission.

“Our plan was to put Cardell probably in the third or fourth drive just to give him some experience early in the game because we think he is a very gifted quarterback as well,” Wilson said. “I think in fairness to Braylon versus Cardell, we started not knowing exactly what we were going to see a couple of times, and I think we put Braylon in a couple of tough spots. I think we settled down and were running it a little bit better by the time Cardell got in there, and he was able to settle down, and his surrounding cast played pretty well and made some plays that helped him out a lot.”

Shoulders finished the night as the leading Hurricane receiver with 132 yards on five catches.

Ford would redeem himself from his early kickoff blunder with a 1-yard TD to make it 35-7 in the third quarter. He was the leading rusher with 110 yards on 19 carries.

Reserve Roman Fuller tossed a 7-yard TD to Bayne Tryon in the fourth quarter.