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Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football team enters the final three weeks of the regular season in a familiar position, sole possession of first place in the American Southwest Conference. And the Cru can move a step closer to punching its ticket to the NCAA Division III National Championships with a win over Howard Payne University Saturday in Brownwood. UMHB will face the Yellow Jackets in a 2:00 PM kickoff at Gordon Wood Stadium as the two teams meet in Brownwood for the second straight year. The Cru is 7-0 overall and 4-0 in ASC play on the season and UMHB is ranked #2 in the national in both national polls. Howard Payne will bring a 1-6 overall record and a 1-3 mark in ASC play into Saturday's game. UMHB leads the all-time series 12-2, but both of the Yellow Jackets wins have come in Brownwood. The last win for HPU in the series was a 24-20 victory in the 2005 meeting, which also just happens to be the last time UMHB entered the game ranked #2 in the country.
“Our coaches certainly remember the way we felt after that game,” Cru head coach
Pete Fredenburg said. “We want our players to focus on getting better each week, that's what we talk about in practice and what we talked about after the game last weekend. The next chance for us to get better comes Saturday against Howard Payne and we think our guys will be ready to play.”
UMHB battled back from its first second-half deficit of the season to post a 45-32 victory over Hardin-Simmons last Saturday. The Cru has also trailed in the first half in each of its last two games. One major record could fall Saturday against HPU. UMHB senior linebacker
Javicz Jones is just five tackles away from becoming the ASC's all-time leader in tackles. Jones has 399 career tackles and trails only Jared Sanderson on the conference list. Sanderson posted 403 tackles during his career at Hardin-Simmons. Jones' next tackle will make him the first player in Cru history to reach 400 career tackles.
Saturday's game will be broadcast locally on KTEM-AM radio. Jimmy Christopher and George Haffner will call the action with the pre-game set to start at 1:30 PM. UMHB will also offer a free live video stream of the game at the following link:
http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/umhb.portal.
