The loss drops Howard Payne (6-1, 5-1) out of a tie atop the American Southwest Conference standings with No. 2 Mary Hardin-Baylor (7-0, 6-0) – a 72-14 winner over Sul Ross (1-5, 1-5) Saturday. Next up for the Yellow Jackets is No. 8 Hardin-Simmons (6-1, 5-1), coming off a 69-7 win over Southwestern (1-6, 1-5), at 1 p.m. next Saturday at Gordon Wood Stadium
The Belhaven (5-2, 4-2) defensive front wreaked havoc on the HPU offensive line most of the day, limiting the Yellow Jackets to just 276 total yards – 212 passing and 64 rushing. Two weeks ago, Howard Payne led NCAA Division III football averaging 614 yards per game, with the fourth-best scoring average of 52 points per outing, but has tallied just 31 points and 569 yards since.
On the flip side of the ball, the Blazers churned out 427 yards, with 336 coming on the ground.
Brad Foley rushed for 158 yards and a touchdown to spark the Belhaven offense. Quarterback Mayowa Asagunla tacked on 84 yards and Kolbe Blunt chipped in 81 yards with a trip to the end zone.
Meanwhile for Howard Payne, which didn’t score in the first half, quarterback Landon McKinney completed 16 of 29 passes for 212 yards with a touchdown and was sacked twice. McKinney was also the leading rusher with 49 of the Jackets’ 64 yards on the ground.
Otis Lanier led the HPU receiving corps with five catches for 104 yards, Jake Parker finished with five grabs for 37 yards and Selah Smith scored the lone touchdown as he finished with two catches for 48 yards.
For the HPU defense, Aaron Alderete logged 16 tackles followed by Kyle Bell with 10 and James Jakubowski, Dai’Shawn Fisher and Carson Padilla with eight apiece.
Belhaven led 3-0 after its first possession following a 33-yard field goal by Constantine Hontzas with 5:42 left in the first quarter. Then, at the 13:27 mark of the second period, Foley bounced off a crowd of HPU defenders and broke free for a 57-yard score.
The Yellow Jackets reached the Belhaven 25 in the first quarter, but failed to convert a fourth-and-5 pass attempt. Howard Payne didn’t advance into scoring range again until the next-to-last play of the first half, a 42-yard pass from McKinney to Lanier down to the Belhaven 4. But in the perfect summation of Howard Payne’s first half struggles, the 21-yard field goal attempt was blocked leaving the Jackets in a 10-0 hole at halftime.
Belhaven stretched the lead to 17-0 on a 43-yard run by Blunt just 3:43 into the second half.
Howard Payne finally got on the board with 9:27 to go in the third quarter as Blake Phipps booted a 25-yard field goal.
Just 14 seconds into the fourth period the Jackets crept within 17-10 on a 45-yard touchdown hook up from McKinney to Smith.
But Belhaven responded with a 12-play, 77-yard trek and scored a touchdown on a 1-yard plunge by Bogan Brewer with 6:37 remaining to boost the lead to 24-10. The key play of the drive was a third-and-18 completion from Asagunla to Michael Simpson for 42 yards down to the HPU 4, which accounted for 46 percent of the Blazers’ 91 passing yards in the game.
The Yellow Jackets advanced to the Belhaven 4 on their next possession where the drive stalled with 3:42 to go, and the Blazers were able to run out the clock.
***
| American SW Conference |
Conference Wins |
Conference Losses |
Overall Wins |
Overall Losses |
|
| Mary Hardin-Baylor | 6 | 0 | 7 | 0 | |
| Hardin-Simmons | 5 | 1 | 6 | 1 | |
| Howard Payne | 5 | 1 | 6 | 1 | |
| Belhaven | 4 | 2 | 5 | 2 | |
| East Texas Baptist | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | |
| McMurry | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 | |
| Texas Lutheran | 2 | 5 | 2 | 5 | |
| Austin College | 1 | 5 | 1 | 5 | |
| Sul Ross | 1 | 5 | 1 | 5 | |
| Southwestern | 1 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
—
Week 8 Games
Belhaven 24, Howard Payne 10
Mary Hardin-Baylor 72, Sul Ross 14
Hardin-Simmons 69, Southwestern 7
East Texas Baptist 37, Austin College 30
Texas Lutheran 28, McMurry 21
—
Week 9 Games
Hardin-Simmons at Howard Payne
Belhaven at Mary Hardin-Baylor
Texas Lutheran at East Texas Baptist
Sul Ross at McMurry
Austin College at Southwestern
