“I’m not necessarily a stats guy, but I’ve always been someone who wants to set goals that I can achieve individually, and that was one I wanted,” linebacker Ty Parsons said. East Texas Baptist athletics photo

By Brian Lester
D3sports.com

Ty Parsons broke a school record Saturday afternoon, and the accomplishment is a bigger deal than just a number being entered into a book.

His road to this point wasn’t straight ahead and detour-free. It was filled with twists and turns that included stops at three other schools before the linebacker finally found a home at East Texas

Baptist.

He could have walked away from football after a promising career at Georgetown was wiped away after one season when the school didn’t follow the lead of the rest of the Patriot League and offer

scholarships.

He could have said so long to football after he transferred to Central Arkansas and redshirted before a coaching change swayed his decision to find another school.

And it would have been easy to give up on his dream after things didn’t work out the way he hoped at Harding. He made 15 appearances on special teams that first season with the
Bison but hope for more playing time down the road faded fast.

“They pretty much told me I wasn’t going to get to play there, but I knew I could play somewhere,” Parsons said. “I landed at East Texas. I had some East Texas roots with family and everything, so

it was a good fit. I haven’t looked back since.”

And so here he was on Saturday, on a day when the Tigers clinched their third consecutive winning season with a 42-28 victory over Sul Ross State, breaking a single-season tackle record that had

stood since 2003.

With 15 tackles, Parsons pushed his season total to 123, breaking the old record of 122.

“To me, it’s a huge honor,” Parsons said. “I’m not necessarily a stats guy, but I’ve always been someone who wants to set goals that I can achieve individually, and that was one I wanted.”

The best part is that it will be remembered forever.

“I’m a big history guy in general. To have something tangible, in writing, that I can come back in 10, 20 or however many years from now and look at, it’s really awesome,” Parsons said.

The record has deeper meaning because for so long Parsons had a hard time fitting in anywhere.

Georgetown seemed to be the perfect place for the linebacker out of Dallas Christian High School who won a state championship as a freshman in 2008 and finished his prep career with 450 tackles. As

a freshman with the Hoyas, he recorded eight tackles and blocked a punt.

But with no scholarship possibility on the horizon, he transferred to Central Arkansas, and then on to Harding. The hardest part of the journey was not getting that chance to showcase his skills.

“To go from being the guy everyone relies on in high school and then having success at Georgetown to being someone in the background, it was definitely humbling,” Parsons said. “Getting back to

being somebody the team relies on here was a big deal for me.”

Getting to 100-plus tackles was also a huge deal because so much has to go your way to do it.

Parsons found a way, just as he stayed the course when it seemed as if the game of football no longer had a place for him.

“There were definitely times I wanted to quit, but my parents encouraged me to stick with it, and I loved football too much not to finish it the right way,” Parsons said. “It’s nice everything has

come together at the end. The thing I’ll always associate my college career with is persistence and perseverance.”

Big day for the Vikings

Berry is postseason-bound for the first time after knocking off Birmingham-Southern 35-18 on Saturday. The Vikings clinched at least a share of the SAA title, and because it holds the head-to-head

tiebreaker with Centre, they are assured of going to the playoffs as well.

There are still two weeks left in the season, though, and one more goal can be accomplished, that being an outright league title. The Vikings, who have a bye this week, can clinch that outright

championship with a win against Trinity in the season finale or if Centre loses one more game.

Berry is 9-0 and has won its last 14 games. Jacob Collins helped pave the way in the latest win, rushing for 132 yards and two touchdowns. With 643 yards overall, he needs just 17 to set the

single-season record. The sophomore has three touchdowns.

Meanwhile, the Panthers couldn’t get their ground game going against the Vikings, who limited the Panthers to 19 rushing yards. Opponents are averaging just 58 rushing yards per game against the

Vikings this season.

Regional notes

The Orgill Cup still belongs to Rhodes. The Lynx defeated Sewanee 28-10 in the long-time rivalry on a chilly Saturday afternoon in Memphis to keep the cup in its possession for the sixth

consecutive season. Behind 234 yards and two touchdowns from quarterback PJ Settles, Rhodes ended its three-game losing streak. Settles went over 2,000 passing yards for the year and has thrown 15

touchdown passes. He’s also the team’s leading rusher and scored two more rushing touchdowns Saturday to push his season total to 11.

All that matters is the final score. After letting a 21-point lead slip away, Hendrix held on late in a 38-28 win over Trinity. The Warriors surged ahead 21-0 in the first half, but the Tigers had

tied the game up at 28-28 by the end of the third quarter. The Warriors scored 10 points in the fourth to secure the win. Michael Kramer played a key role defensively, recording 14 tackles. It’s

the third time this season he has tallied 10 or more tackles. He has 67 on the season and still has two games to go to best his 2016 total of 74.

Three records fell in Belhaven’s impressive 63-46 win over Louisiana College. Hunter McEachern crushed two of those records, breaking the single-game mark for touchdowns in a game -- he threw seven

-- and setting the career record for touchdown passes (54). The 681 yards the Blazers rolled up was a single-game record and propelled them to their first win since the opener in August. The

victory was its first in conference play. McEachern completed 34 of his 53 passes for 501 yards and has thrown for more than 2,000 yards this season.

A tough start didn’t deter Texas Lutheran from finishing strong in a 63-21 win over Howard Payne. The Bulldogs rolled up 677 yards, scoring 28 unanswered points in the first half to erase a 14-0

deficit, and forced three turnovers en route to their fourth win in their last five games. James Bell played big role on defense as he picked off his team-best fifth pass of the year. Bell also

racked up seven tackles. Bell has been on a roll as of late, picking off a pass in each of his last three games. With 43 tackles, he ranks third on the team in that category.