ABILENE – The Howard Payne Yellow Jackets suffered their third consecutive defeat Saturday afternoon, dropping their American Southwest Conference football opener at the d3football.com No. 10 Hardin-Simmons Cowboys, 69-14.

Hardin-Simmons (4-0, 1-0) generated 708 yards of total offense – 453 passing and 255 rushing – with no turnovers, while Howard Payne (2-3, 0-1) finished with 249 yards of total offense – 171 rushing and 78 passing – with one turnover.

For the Yellow Jackets, Blessing Ngene gained 110 rushing yards and a touchdown while JC Mays tacked on 63 yards.

Through the air, Kahliq Paulette passed for 56 yards and a touchdown, while Andon Mara threw for 15 yards, and Bryce Still completed a 7-yard pass.

Ellis Myers led HPU with three catches for 23 yards, Derik Jackson added three catches for 12 yards, Ngene notched two receptions for 17 yards, and Mateo Hernandez caught a 12-yard touchdown.

Bryan Elizalde collected a team-high nine tackles for the HPU defense followed by eight each from Cade Rochinski and Roderick Mapps.

Hardin-Simmons’ Kyle Brown passed for 351 yards and four touchdowns while Ty Thompson added 92 yards and a scoring toss.

Wes Douglas caught four passes for 104 yards with two touchdowns, Noah Garcia recorded five receptions for 46 yards with a touchdown, Kris Sims led HSU with eight grabs for 50 yards, Dozie Ifeadi caught a 90-yard touchdown pass, and Harison Brockway added a 44-yard scoring reception.

Asa Osbourn led the Cowboy ground game with 130 yards and three touchdowns and Kamerin Ferguson picked up 100 yards rushing and cross the goal line once.

The Cowboys jumped out to 21-0 lead after one quarter, were in front 31-7 at halftime, and owned a 48-7 advantage through three periods.

Howard Payne hosts East Texas Baptist (4-1, 0-1), which is coming off a 42-28 loss to Mary Hardin-Baylor (2-2, 1-0), at 2:30 p.m. next Saturday for homecoming.