Box Score Box Score
Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football team dominated the third quarter and the Cru never looked back on the way to a 45-3 victory over Howard Payne University Saturday afternoon in Belton. The Cru, ranked 4
th in the country, improves to 8-0 overall and 6-0 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory. The loss drops the Yellow Jackets to 2-7 overall and 1-6 in ASC play on the season.
After a sluggish start to the game, UMHB took a 3-0 lead when
Alan Munoz hit a 36-yard field goal with 6:03 remaining in the first quarter. HPU would miss a field goal on its next possession and the Cru marched 76 yards in seven plays before
Quincy Daniels scored on a seven-yard run with 55 seconds left in the first period. The extra point was blocked and the Cru settled for a 9-0 lead. The lead would grow to 16-0 when
LiDarral Bailey hit
Ervin Johnson with a 19-yard TD strike with 3:44 left in the first half.
UMHB then exploded for four touchdowns in the third quarter to take control of the game.
Stephen Salinas opened the second half scoring with a one-yard touchdown run and Bailey added a seven-yard TD toss to
Damian Davis to make it 29-0 UMHB with 7:58 left in the third.
Micah Spicer would pick off a screen pass at the two-yard line and rumble in for another score to stretch it to 36-0 and
D.J. Monroe added a 22-yard scoring run to make it 42-0 with 55 seconds to go in the third. Mitchell Bailey ended the Cru shutout attempt with a 21-yard field goal with 12:08 left in the game and Munoz answered with a 22-yarder of his own with 7:43 left to close out the scoring.
Daniels finished with 104 rushing yards and a TD on 18 carries. The 100-yard rushing day was the 18
th of his career, setting a new UMHB record by breaking the old mark of 17 that he shared with Justin Bryson. Salinas added 63 yards on 11 totes and eight different players carried the ball in the game. Bailey finished 7-8 passing for 121 yards and a pair of touchdowns and Davis caught four passes for 75 yards and a score.
Javicz Jones led the Cru defense with nine tackles and
Ty Dooley broke up four passes for UMHB.
Zach Hubbard was 29-50 passing for HPU for 223 yards, but he also had three passes picked off. Andre Dean caught 10 passes for 62 yards and Cody Hambrick had nine catches for 72 yards. Reid Golson ran for 14 yards on four carries as the Cru defense stifled the Yellow Jacket run game.
UMHB rolled up 441 yards of total offense with 252 of those coming on the ground and 189 through the air. The Cru fumbled five times and lost two of those, but UMHB also forced four turnovers. The Yellow Jackets managed just 24 rushing yards and 261 yards of total offense in the game.
The Cru will now travel to Alpine for a 1:00 PM kickoff at Sul Ross State next Saturday. UMHB can clinch at least a share of the ASC title and claim the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Championships with a victory over the Lobos next weekend.
