BROWNWOOD, Texas - The Howard Payne University football team intercepted McMurry University three times and used a balanced offensive attack to defeat the War Hawks 24-3 Saturday afternoon at Gordon Wood Stadium.
Howard Payne recorded 551 yards of total offense (244 rushing, 307 passing) against McMurry. The Yellow Jacket defense forced three interceptions and held McMurry to 124 total rushing yards in the game.
The Jackets started the game with a 68 yard pass to
Jake Parker down to the McMurry seven-yard line.
Billy Reagins then punched it in from three-yards out to make it 7-0 Jackets less that two minutes into the game.
McMurry scored its only points on the day toward the end of the first quarter on a 24 yard field goal by Jared Mendoza with 4:25 left in the quarter.
It was all Yellow Jackets the rest of the first half.
Hunter Cheek hauled in an eight-yard TD pass from
Landon McKinney to make it 14-3 with 1:13 left in the opening quarter.
HPU added two more scores in the second quarter, one a 30-yard field goal from
Blake Phipps with 2:59 before the half and next a
Jake Parker TD pass from McKinney with :18 seconds left in the first half. The Yellow Jackets led 24-3 at the half.
Both teams tightened down the defense in the second half. But the HPU secondary would go on to picked off McMurry three times in the game,
Kyle Bell in the first quarter, and Jerrett Brown and
Trey Wagoner in the fourth quarter.
The Jackets defense was led by
Kyle Bell with 12 tackles, eight solo, one for loss and one pass breakup.
Carson Padilla followed with eight tackles, five solo.
HPU's
Landon McKinney was 16 of 28 passing for 299 yards and two TDs.
Jake Parker led the receiving crew with seven catches for 178 yards and one TD.
Hunter Cheek added five receptions for 99 yards and one TD.
Tauren Bradley recorded 107 yards rushing on 19 carries.
Billy Reagins had 62 yards on 12 carries and one TD.
Howard Payne is now 2-2 overall and McMurry falls to 1-3 on the year. The Yellow Jackets will host an ASC playoff game next Saturday at 1:00 pm versus Belhaven University at Gordon Wood Stadium.
