Abram Choate, SID
BETHANY, Oklahoma – The Yellow Jacket defense holds the Southern Nazarene Crimson Storm to just 152 yards of total offense on Saturday night. In the 7-0 victory, the Howard Payne defense scored the only touchdown of the game.
At the beginning for the season the big question was will the HPU defensive reserves be able to fill the shoes of the seven defensive starters lost from 2005. That question was answered on Saturday with an overwhelming, Yes. The Yellow Jacket defensive performance was the lowest they have held any opponent since Coach Redwine has taken over, giving up only 51 yards on the ground and 101 in the air.
Even though the Yellow Jacket offense struggled to stay consistent throughout the game the defense did help the cause when HPU's Sr. WS Daryl Jones (Austin) picked off a SNU pass on their 12 yard line and ran it in for the only touchdown of the game.
HPU Sr. QB Adam Johnson (Coppell) was 14 of 28 passing for 97 yards and two interceptions. The HPU run game was by committee as So. Zach Lee (Tyler), Fr. Jamal Organ (Brownwood), Jr.-TR Chris Weaver (Imperial Beach, CA), and Fr. Carlton Brown (Coleman) all saw time in the backfield. Zach Lee got the most carries with 12 for 42 yards.
On the defensive side, Yellow Jacket Jr. LB Landon Dyer (Bangs) led all tacklers in the game with 12 (7 solo), 3 tackles for loss, 2 pass breakups, and 1 sack.
The Yellow Jackets have a open date this week but will return to action on Saturday, September 16 at home taking on East Texas Baptist University at 12:00 p.m..
