By Ron Boerger,
D3sports.com
BELTON, Texas -- For all the talk of Mary Hardin-Baylor's offensive prowess, and the strength of the Hardin-Simmons defense, it was an oft-neglected area, returns, which turned the tide in Cowboys' win on Homecoming Saturday in Belton. The balance of power in the ASC returned to Abilene with a 49-22 Hardin-Simmons win. The 49 points were the most allowed by UMHB since November 1998 when HSU put 56 on the board.
It initially seemed that a defensive struggle would be in order. The Cowboys were unable do much with their opening possession and had to punt. P.J. Williams put the Crusaders in business at midfield with a 38-yard return. The Crusaders drove from there to the HSU 8. Chad Starnes dropped a perfect pass from Andy Padron that would have led to an easy score, and that served as a harbinger of how the rest of the Crusaders' day would go. Zach Newcomb hit a short field goal to give the Crusaders what would turn out to be their only lead of the game, 3-0 with 7:10 left in the opening stanza.
The teams exchanged punts on successive three-and-out series. The Cowboys then decided to throw the ball almost exclusively on their next drive, with Jordan Neal throwing several deep passes that were just beyond the reach of his receivers. This seemed to open up the underside of the Crusader defense, and Neal was able to find his receivers open underneath. At one point during the drive, Neal threw on 14 of 16 consecutive plays. Faced with fourth-and-19 from their own 32 after an intentional grounding call and an incompletion, Neal found Josh Howard for 31 yards on a beautiful sliding catch.
Neal took it in himself from there, but the Crusaders – for the fifth time this year – converted an opponent's extra point try. The snap was mishandled; Bret Page picked it up, returning it to midfield where, in the process of being tackled, he tossed a lateral to Kelvin Kirby who returned it the rest of the way. So, with 14:14 remaining in the second quarter, and possibly in honor of the World Series later today (thanks, Chad), the score was HSU 6, UMHB 5.
Offensive yardage continued to be hard to come by. The Crusaders seemed ready to answer on their next drive, but a fumble inside the HSU 30 stopped them cold. It wasn't until two drives later that Hardin-Simmons – keyed by a 36-yard catch-and-run from Neal to Jared May – finally began to move the ball. Lance Moore scored his first touchdown of the day from 4 yards out to extend the lead to 13-5 with 2:24 to play in the half.
The Crusaders got right back in it, thanks to a 43-yard kick return from Chad Starnes. Coach Pete Fredenburg replaced Andy Padron with Josh Welch, who led the Crusaders to the Cowboy 8 before Brent Gailey sacked Welsh on a third-and-6. Zach Newcomb hit his second short attempt of the day to close the gap to 13-8. With only 34 seconds and no Cowboy timeouts, it looked like the Crusaders would go into the locker room with some momentum.
It was at this crucial point that Will Galusha made his presence felt. Galusha took Newcomb's kickoff from his own 5 to the UMHB 20. From there, it took Neal only three plays to guide the Cowboys into the end zone, with Josh Howard scoring on an alley-oop from Neal from 5 yards out. With just three seconds left, the score had been extended to 21-8, and the home crowd was stunned into silence.
The Crusaders started the second half with the ball and Padron rapidly moved the Cru to midfield, but disaster struck when his weak pass to the left flat was picked off by Will Galusha and returned 57 yards for a touchdown. It Galusha's fifth consecutive game with a pick. After Neal found Matt Moskosky on the two-point try, the visitors led 29-8. The disheartened Crusaders could seemingly only watch from that point. The Cowboys forced another punt and took just three plays to score again, with Neal finding Len Williams for his third touchdown reception of the year. The extra point was missed, but it was still 35-8 with more than 10 minutes remaining in the third quarter.
The Crusaders would try to get back in it, but their efforts on this day proved futile. Led by the rushing of Justin Bryson, Padron led his squad from his own 23 to the Cowboy 33, but once again a turnover turned the tide. Will Galusha forced Austin Schrader to fumble, and Brody Deaver returned it 26 yards to set up yet another score. Moore scored on a 1-yard run to put the Cowboys up 42-8. When Alex Hansen picked off Welch's offering on the Crusader's next offensive play, it was all over except on the clock. Mary Hardin-Baylor would score twice in the fourth to make the score a little more respectable, but on this day, it was apparent who was the best team on the field. Given their relative ease in defeating a highly regarded opponent, it would not be a surprise to see the Cowboys receive a first place vote or two next week.
After having only 28 yards on 12 carries at the half, Lance Moore ended the day with 224 yards and three touchdowns on 32 carries -- sixth all-time at Hardin-Simmons. Jordan Neal was 21-of-36 for 267 yards and two scores, with Jared May catching five for 103 to lead all receivers. The Cowboys racked up 504 total yards on a very good Mary Hardin-Baylor defense. MHB, which totaled 392 yards, was led by Justin Bryson's 128 yards on 22 carries. Welch completed 13 of 23 for 165 yards but had two interceptions; starter Padron was 5-of-9 for 42 yards and one interception. Austin Schrader (five catches, 54 yards) and P.J. Williams (four receptions, 66 yards, one touchdown) were the leading receivers for the Crusaders.
Defensively, Galusha led the victors with 12 tackles (nine solo), two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery, and two interceptions for 57 yards. Gailey added eight tackles (five solo); Brody Deaver (three solo) and Nivek Hatcher (two) both had seven. Josh Kubiak led the home side with 12 tackles (five solo), assisted by RoJo Johnson (11 total, six solo, three for loss) and Ryan McCabe (ten total, two solo, three for loss).
The dominating performance today by the Cowboys will send shock waves across Division III. If they win out, Hardin-Simmons (7-0, 6-0 ASC) has basically locked up the top seed in the region; with the lopsided loss, the Crusaders (6-1, 5-1) will once again have to play the waiting game to see if they will get a Pool C bid.