Abram Choate, SID

BELTON, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football team controlled the game from the opening kickoff and the Crusaders cruised to a 55-7 victory over Howard Payne Saturday afternoon in the regular season finale for both teams.

Howard Payne scored its only points on a 50-yard TD pass from Sr. QB Adam Johnson (Coppell) to Sr.  WR David Guerrero (Midland) with 28 seconds left in the third quarter. The final score in the game came on a UMHB 45-yard TD pass from Padron to Chris Owen with 11:28 remaining in the game.

UMHB rolled up 511 yards of total offense and held the Yellow Jackets to 210 yards of offense. The Crusaders ran for 354 yards and hit 7-10 passes for 157 more yards.

Rollins led UMHB with 86 yards rushing and two rushing touchdowns. Welch was 5-7 passing for 70 yards and Cole Smith caught four passes for 58 yards for the Crusaders. Jerrell Freeman led the UMHB defense with 10 tackles and he also forced a fumble and intercepted a pass.

HPU managed just 42 yards rushing and 168 yards through the air. Johnson was 19-37 passing for 168 yards and a TD, but he also had two passes picked off. Junior WR Jordan Beard (Rusk) caught five passes for 39 yards and Sr. WR Brandon Tolbert (Austin) had five grabs for 31 yards. Ryan Robbins (Copperas Cove) had a team-high 11 tackles for HPU.

The Yellow Jackets end the season at 5-5 overall and 3-5 in the ASC. The sixth-ranked Crusaders improve to 8-2 overall and 8-0 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory.