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| Kris Brown, right, and Eric
Allen celebrate Brown's interception that clinched the win on the
game's final play. Photo by Joe Fusco, d3photography.com |
BELTON, Texas – Mary Hardin-Baylor weathered a lightning delay-fueled postponement and Texas Lutheran's rally late as the Cru held on for a 27-20 victory over the Bulldogs in Sunday's completion of a first-round playoff game.
UMHB improves to 11-0 with the victory and advances to the second round for the 11th consecutive season. Texas Lutheran ends its season with a 9-2 record. Both of the Bulldogs losses came to the Cru this year. The game spanned two days after a pair of lengthy lightning delays on Saturday finally pushed the game to an 11:30 a.m. start on Sunday.
Texas Lutheran grabbed a 7-0 lead when Trenton White hit Caleb Oliver with a 40-yard touchdown pass at the 10:08 mark of the first quarter. UMHB answered with Zach Anderson's 73-yard scoring strike to Wykeyhe Walker on the Cru's second offensive play. A holding penalty wiped out a UMHB interception return for a touchdown on the next TLU possession and the Bulldogs capitalized with Tyler Brandenburg's 39-yard field goal to take a 10-7 lead with 16 seconds remaining in the first quarter. Anderson found Kamray Runnels with a 33-yard TD strike just six plays later to give UMHB its first lead of the game with 13:49 left in the first half.
Texas Lutheran would drive to the 49-yard line with 11:21 left in the first half before the first lightning delay hit. That delay lasted 6 hours and 19 minutes before the teams finally retook the field. TLU moved the ball to the Cru 28-yard line before another delay stopped the action with 8:40 to go in the second quarter. After several failed attempts to get back on the field, the game was finally suspended at 9:35 PM.
UMHB held the Bulldogs once play finally resumed and Brandenburg missed a 45-yard field goal try. A bad snap on a field goal attempt cost the Cru a shot at three points and Brandenburg missed again, this time from 30 yards out, to leave it a 14-10 UMHB lead at halftime. It would stay that way until Runnels returned a Bulldog punt 65 yards for a touchdown with 5:21 left in the third quarter to put UMHB up 20-10. Brandenburg connected on a 30-yard field goal late in the third to close the gap to 20-13. Trey Thedford would pick off a TLU pass at the Bulldog 30-yard line early in the fourth quarter and Duane Thompson scored on a three-yard run to stretch the Cru's lead to 27-13. TLU went on a 20-play, 75-yard drive, but took 9:31 off the clock before White hit Colby Ginn with a 5-yard TD pass with 1:36 left to cut it to a 27-20 UMHB lead. The Bulldogs recovered the ensuing onside kick, but touched the ball too early, giving the Cru the ball at the Bulldog 42-yard line. UMHB would punt the ball away with 37 seconds left. White drove TLU to the Cru 31-yard line, but Kris Brown intercepted a Hail Mary pass on the final play to secure the win for UMHB.
Texas Lutheran controlled the ball for 48:22 of the game and ran 99 offensive plays compared to 35 for UMHB. The Bulldogs rolled up 308 rushing yards and 452 yards of total offense. The Cru ran for just 118 yards and totaled 284 yards of offense. UMHB was also penalized eight times for 112 yards and had two touchdowns called back.
Anderson finished 6-12 passing for 166 yards and two scores and he added 54 rushing yards on seven carries. Runnels had three catches for 61 yards and a score to go with his punt return for a touchdown. Thedford topped the Cru defense with 16 tackles and an interception and Eric Allen added 15 stops.
Marquis Barrolle ran for 224 yards on a school-record 50 carries for TLU and he added six receptions for 40 yards. White was 12-28 passing for 144 yards and two scores but also had two passes picked off. Darian Candler had a team-high eight tackles for the Bulldogs and he added 4.0 tackles for loss.
UMHB will now host Linfield in a noon Central Time kickoff on Saturday, Nov. 29 at Crusader Stadium. The Wildcats are 9-1 on the season and were co-champions of the Northwest Conference. Linfield advanced to the Second Round with a 55-24 victory over Chapman and the Wildcats have a 2-0 record all-time against UMHB.