Nationally-ranked teams Mississippi College and Mary Hardin-Baylor each clinched a share of the American Southwest Conference football title and celebrated on their home fields Saturday (Nov. 14), while Louisiana College and East Texas Baptist also closed out the 2009 regular season slate with victories at home. MC’s win was extra sweet as it gave the Choctaws the league’s automatic bid into the NCAA playoffs because of a head-to-head win over UMHB back in October. The Cru will hope for an at-large berth to the postseason.
Mississippi College had to earn its first conference title since 1997 by scoring two late touchdowns to prevail 38-24 over Texas Lutheran. MC (8-2, 7-1 ASC) and TLU (0-10, 0-8 ASC) were tied 24-24 with just over four minutes left in the third quarter. MC quarterback Adam Shaffer sealed the deal from there by tossing two touchdown passes – one to Renard Ellis toward the end of the third quarter and another to Cody Goss with 4:54 left in the game. Shaffer threw for four scores, but it was MC running back Steven Knight that ran for 221 yards and a TD on 24 totes to pace the offense. Knight won the conference rushing title with 1,181 yards and was the only player to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark. Steven Thrash caught eight passes for 104 yards and a TD to pace TLU. Defensively, no player on either side had more than eight tackles. TLU was coached for the final time by Dennis Parker, who announced his resignation earlier in the week.
Mary Hardin-Baylor had no troubles getting to hoist its seventh ASC trophy as the Cru totaled 632 yards of total offense and held Sul Ross State to just 82 in a 48-16 victory. UMHB (9-1, 7-1 ASC) had three players go over 100 yards rushing and combine for five touchdowns: Quincy Daniels (152), Bryson Tucker (117) and LiDarral Bailey (107). Rocky Vaclavick had nine tackles, a half sack and a pass break-up to pace a UMHB defense that yielded only 17 rushing yards. Tony Allen returned a blocked punt 30 yards for a TD in the first quarter and posted 10 tackles to lead SRSU (2-8, 2-6 ASC). Michael Van Wagner was also good on an ASC season-long 57 yard field goal for the Lobos.
McMurry took an early 7seven-point advantage before Louisiana College reeled off 52 unanswered points and eventually captured a 55-13 victory. The win allowed LC (7-3, 6-2 ASC) to finish in sole possession of third place in the league standings. McMurry (4-6, 4-4 ASC) still managed to wrap up a fifth-place finish under first-year coach Hal Mumme, who took over a winless program from 2008. Ben McLaughlin threw for 243 yards and two touchdowns, Jordan Rideaux posted 10 catches and Detrick James ran for two scores to pace LC’s offense. McMurry, playing without ill starting quarterback Jake Mullin, turned the ball over five times. Marcus Franklin caught 10 passes for 124 yards to pace The Nation. Reggie Calhoun had two interceptions and three pass break-ups for LC.
East Texas Baptist set a new program record with 387 rushing yards and marched to a 42-7 win over Howard Payne. ETBU (3-7, 3-5 ASC) snapped a five-game losing streak. Seth Hubbard and Trevor Cavness each went over the 100-yard mark on the ground and combined for 255 yards and three touchdowns. Hubbard also threw for 128 yards and a score, while Cavness added 70 yards receiving and a TD catch. Corey George also chipped in with two rushing TDs for the Tigers. Austin Sturrock had two sacks to pace an ETBU defense that held HPU (4-6, 2-6 ASC) to only 16 yards rushing. HPU quarterback Zach Hubbard supplied the Yellow Jackets’ only score on a 1-yard TD run early in the first quarter that tied the game 7-7. Dustin McClure had 11 tackles for HPU.
Hardin-Simmons was the only team idle in Week 11. The Cowboys ended their regular season last week with a road win over cross-town rival McMurry.
2009 ASC Weekly Football Recap Archives