Howard Payne, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Louisiana College and East Texas Baptist all nabbed American Southwest Conference wins on Saturday (Sept. 25) during the fourth week of football action in the league. LC was the only team to come out ahead on the road. Sul Ross State was the only squad idle.
Howard Payne 39, Texas Lutheran 17: Zach Hubbard threw for 341 yards and three touchdowns to lead Howard Payne to a win in Brownwood, Texas. HPU (2-2, 1-1 ASC) never trailed and jumped out to a 32-3 lead at halftime. Cody Hambrick caught seven passes for 149 yards and two scores to also fuel the Yellow Jackets’ offense. Sherome Miller caught a 33-yard pass and Donald Morgan returned an interception for TLU’s only touchdowns – both of which came in the fourth quarter. Dustin McClure had a game-high 12 tackles to lead a HPU defense that yielded just 43 rushing yards to TLU (1-2, 1-1 ASC).
Mary Hardin-Baylor 42, Hardin-Simmons 28: Darius Wilson, LiDarral Bailey and Quincy Daniels all rushed for over 100 yards and combined for four touchdowns as the Cru produced a win in front of a program and ASC home crowd-record of 7,704 at Tiger Field in Belton, Texas. UMHB (3-0, 2-0 ASC) totaled 525 yards of total offense – 439 rushing – in the battle of undefeated, top-10 teams. HSU (2-1, 1-1 ASC), which led 14-7 after the first quarter, converted just one of nine third-down tries. UMHB’s defense, led by Silvio Diaz (fumble recovery, sack), picked off three passes. Wilson finished with 190 yards, while Bailey had 138 and Daniels totaled 96. ZaVious Robbins caught five passes for 119 yards and a score, while Cooper Haralson (15) and Caleb Christian (12) had double-digit tackles to lead the Cowboys. It was the ninth straight win for UMHB in the series.
Click here to watch UMHB's Darius Wilson talk about the win
Louisiana College 45, Mississippi College 42: Ben McLaughlin connected with DeMario Parker on a 19-yard touchdown pass with 24 seconds left in regulation to give the Wildcats a dramatic victory in a game in Clinton, Miss., that featured seven fourth-quarter touchdowns. LC (1-2, 1-0 ASC) and MC (2-2, 0-2 ASC) combined for 979 yards of total offense. McLaughlin threw for 346 yards and four TDs – two each to Parker and Darnell Williams (four catches, 159 yards). Williams also returned a kickoff 89 yards for a score. Brian Whitehurst ran for 160 yards and two TDs on 22 carries to pace MC, which rallied back from a 24-7 halftime deficit. LC’s Nate Janzen had 22 tackles – just four off the conference record. Jeremy Bertrand had 10 stops and an interception for MC.
East Texas Baptist 23, McMurry 21: Brett Peddicord hit a 20-yard field goal with 15 seconds remaining to lift the Tigers to a victory in Marshall, Texas. Evan Beaton had three of nine sacks for ETBU (2-2, 1-1 ASC), which limited McMurry (2-2, 0-2 ASC) to just 4-for-18 on third-down conversions and held the nation’s top passing attack to just 276 yards. Peddicord hit three field goals on the night. McMurry took its first lead, 21-20, with 5:35 remaining on a Jake Mullin 10-yard pass to Simon Neal. Each team came up empty on its next possession until Seth Hubbard directed an eight-play, 54-yard drive for the win. Beaton and Brad Wallace each had three tackles for loss, while Matt Tarver added 2.5 sacks for ETBU. R.J. Long had seven catches for 134 yards and a score to lead McMurry’s offense, while Kyle Kelley, Will Morris and Austin Cleere all had 10 tackles to pace the defense.