Tulsa Oilers Football, proud member of the IFL, headed out west to test their luck in Vegas against the Knight Hawks and just came up short in a 46-32 loss.
The Knight Hawks opened the games’ scoring after just three plays, a touchdown coming on a three-yard rush by Davonte Sapp-Lynch into the end zone with 13:11 left in the first, the extra point would be missed, making it 6-0 Vegas. Vegas followed up with back-to-back scores, the next coming from a 27-yard reception in the back right corner of the end zone by Caleb Holley to bring the score to 13-0 Knight Hawks with 8:43 remaining in the opening frame. Tulsa started their scoring thanks to a two-yard rushing score to the right side by Tre Harvey to cut the game down to a score of 13-7 Vegas with 6:34 left in the first quarter. Vegas wide receiver, Malik Honeycutt, responded with a 31-yard touchdown reception of his own with 4:48 left in the frame to add to the Knight Hawks lead, generating a 20-7 Vegas advantage. Tulsa ended the first quarter scoring, by connecting on a 19-yard pass in the end zone from Vincent Espinoza to Damion May to make it 20-13 Knight Hawks with just 0:35 left in the first.
The second quarter provided less scoring than the first but began with 12:30 remaining in the half via a 21-yard Quentin Randolph touchdown catch to provide a 27-13 Vegas lead. Knight Hawks quarterback Daquan Neal rushed for two yards into the end zone with 6:33 remaining in the half to build the biggest lead of the night for Vegas, at 33-13. Tulsa would see another May touchdown thanks to a connection of 16 yards in the end zone after the ball was tipped initially but ultimately landed in the hands of the former Quad City Steamwheeler for a score to make it 33-20 Knight Hawks with 3:15 left in the second. Oilers’ kicker Jeremy Reynolds would pick up a deuce off the resulting kickoff to make it a 33-22 game. Reynolds has two deuces on the season, and the half ended at the said score.
Tulsa opened the second half with a 21-yard field goal from Reynolds with 10:20 left in the third to make it a one-possession game with a 33-25 Vegas lead. Vegas ended the third quarter scoring with 4:41 left in the frame on a one-yard rush by Neal, making the Vegas advantage 40-25 with one quarter remaining.
Tulsa picked up a 22-yard touchdown reception from Alexis Rosario with just 0:43 left in the game to make it 40-32 but Vegas would finish the game with another rushing touchdown by Neal to end the game with a final score of 46-32 in favor of the Knight Hawks.