The Howard Payne Yellow Jackets halted a three-game slide and earned their first American Southwest Conference football victory of the season with a 36-18 homecoming triumph over the East Texas Baptist Tigers Saturday at Gordon Wood Stadium.

Howard Payne improved to 3-3 in their first year under head coach Coby Gipson, eclipsing the 2024 win total, and 1-1 in American Southwest Conference action. Meanwhile, East Texas Baptist fell to 4-2 overall and 0-2 against league competition.

The Yellow Jackets needed just three plays and 1:13 to travel 75 yards on the opening drive of the game, as Ellis Myers caught a 65-yard touchdown pass from Bryce Still, as HPU was up 7-0 at the 13:47 mark of the first quarter and never looked back.

Howard Payne extended the lead to 13-0 on the first of three Blessing Ngene touchdown carries, this one from 8 yards out, at the 10:44 juncture of the first quarter, as the Yellow Jackets owned a two-touchdown advantage less than five minutes into the contest. The touchdown was set up by an errant snap on a punt following ETBU’s first possession.

Just 43 seconds into the second period, the Yellow Jackets stretched their lead to 20-0 on a 4-yard carry by Ngene, who finished with 113 yards on the ground, his third straight contest to eclipse the century mark in rushing yards.

After ETBU got on the board with a 31-yard Mitchell White field goal, HPU’s Osvaldo Gomez answered with a 34-yard field goal of his own with 5:46 left in the first half, and the Yellow Jackets carried a 23-3 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The Tigers closed the gap to 23-10 on a 41-yard pass from Shai Markajani to Kobe Chambers at the 6:24 mark of the third period, but the Jackets answered with 54 seconds left in the quarter on a 3-yard plunge by Ngene to boost the advantage to 30-10.

In the fourth quarter, Osvaldo tacked on field goals of 40 and 20 yards for HPU, while ETBU only managed a 45-yard touchdown pass from Ryan McCown to Chambers, and a two-point conversion.

The Yellow Jackets outgained the Tigers 384-312 in total offense as HPU rushed for 203 yards and passed for 181 with two turnovers. ETBU finished with 282 yards through the air and only 30 on the ground, with one turnover.

To go along with Ngene’s 113 rushing yards, Myers caught three passes for 109 yards with the opening touchdown. Also, Still completed 8 of 12 passes for 144 yards with a touchdown and a pick, Glendon Casas-Willis connected on 2 of 3 passes for 23 yards, JD Mays rushed for 58 yards, and Mateo Hernandez caught three passes for 20 yards.

Defensively for HPU, Cade Rochinski logged six tackles with two for loss and a pair of sacks, Jayden Sellers tallied five tackles with one behind the line of scrimmage, and KD Bookman intercepted a pass to go with his three tackles.

The Yellow Jackets have a bye next week and resume American Southwest Conference action at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25 at Mary Hardin-Baylor (2-3, 1-1), which fell to No. 6 Hardin-Simmons (5-0, 2-0) by a 34-7 count Saturday afternoon.