The Howard Payne Yellow Jackets survived their greatest scare to date at Southwestern last week, keeping their unblemished record intact with a 21-17 triumph, while also remaining in a tie for first place atop the American Southwest Conference standings.
With 28 votes in this week’s d3football.com Top 25, the Yellow Jackets (6-0, 5-0) are barely on the outside looking in with a ranking of 28th in the country. But the toughest portion of the schedule comes over the next three games – Belhaven and No. 8 Hardin-Simmons at home followed by a trip to No. 2 Mary Hardin-Baylor.
At 1 p.m. Saturday, the Yellow Jackets – in the midst of their first winning season since 2005 – welcome the ASC rival Belhaven Blazers (4-2, 3-2) – winners of three games in a row – to Gordon Wood Stadium.
Reflecting on last week’s victory at Southwestern, Howard Payne first-year head coach Jason Bachtel said, “It was a total team win. Lucky for us that our defense played as well as they did because that ballgame could have gotten away from us the way that the offense performed. It was a huge defensive effort that kept us in the ballgame and a great play to end the ballgame on the interception by Jake Parker in our prevent.
“Offensively we put together two really dominating drives and that was the first one and the last one. From an offensive perspective that’s probably my fault because the kids didn’t play with a sense of urgency other than those two drives. When we played with that sense of urgency with our tempo and our pace of play, we marched down the field, and that last drive was under a minute a time when we really needed it.”
Facing a Belhaven team that likes to play a ball-controlled style of offense, making the most of all their offensive opportunities will be crucial for the Yellow Jackets.
“We have to play with a sense of urgency knowing that every drive counts and there is no possession that isn’t a huge, critical possession,” Bachtel said. “This is a Belhaven football team that, if you’re not scoring, they will keep the ball away from you so you have to maximize every drive. Every drive is an important because they have the capability of taking the ball and keeping it for 8 to 10 minutes at a time and draining the clock real fast.
“We have to be able to do stuff off the defensive looks we were given last week. It’s not going to surprise me at all if Belhaven doesn’t try to execute some of the same stuff that Southwestern did. They are the only ones that have really slowed us down, and kudos to those guys. I just want to see us play with a sense of urgency and execute every single drive.”
Howard Payne enters the contest averaging 47 points and 557 yards – 370 passing and 187 rushing – per outing, with 10 turnovers.
Quarterback Landon McKinney has completed 101 of 176 passes for 1,861 yards with 23 touchdowns and four interceptions. Leading receivers include Jake Parker (31-676, 9 TDs), Otis Lanier (23-454, 6 TDs), Selah Smith (10-136, TD), Josh Aldama (7-102, TD), Tyler Vann (7-99), Hunter Cheek (7-94, 2 TDs), Max McCuiston (6-206, 3 TDs), Javonte Russell (6-59, TD), Collyn Shipley (5-86), Quentin Gray (5-77, TD), and Casey Dufner (4-78, 3 TDs).
The ground game is anchored by Tauren Bradley (418 yards, 1 TD), Stephen Willis (299 yards), and Derrick Berry (166 yards, 2 TDs).
Belhaven counters with a defense that allows 22 points and 268 yards – 141 on the ground and 127 through the air – per game, with eight takeaways.
Standouts include Connor Fordham (39 tackles, 8 for loss, 4 sacks, 1 INT, 1 FR), Emmanuel Stanley (31 tackles, 3 for loss, 2 FR), Carlton Brown (23 tackles, 9.5 for loss, 6 sacks), Demetrius Brokenberry (23 tackles, 1.5 for loss, 1 sack, 1 FR), and Josiah Raymond (20 tackles, 1 for loss).
Defensively, the goal for HPU will be to get Belhaven off the field as quickly as possible, and not let drives linger, in order to put the ball back in the hands of the Yellow Jacket offense.
“We have to stop the run,” Bachtel said. “They’re really good up front and they have probably one of the best backs in our conference. That’s what they pride themselves on. Any good offense that prides themselves on running runs the ball to open up the pass. We’ve got to be able to go ahead and stop that. They’re also great at the play-action pass, so we have to maintain our eye discipline so when the plays take place we can still defend the play-action pass and stop the run.”
The Blazers’ rushing attack is spearheaded by Brad Foley (495 yards, 6 TDs), Kolbe Blunt (447 yards, 4 TDs), and quarterback Mayowa Asagunia (404 yards, 8 TDs).
Asagunia has also connected on 79 of 124 pass attempts for 895 yards with eight touchdowns and one interception. Top receiving threats include Michael Simpson (15-226, 3 TDs), Brooks Brymer (9-134, 3 TDs), Jeremy Batten (9-102), Foley (9-92), and Cooper Tulio (7-93, TD).
The Yellow Jacket defense yields 26 points and 380 yards – 257 passing and 122 rushing – per game with 14 takeaways.
Leading the charge for HPU are Peyton Lowe (39 tackles, 7 for loss, 1 sack, 2 INTs, 1 FR), Dai’Shawn Fisher (34 tackles, 3 for loss, 1 FR), James Jakubowski (31 tackles, 3 for loss, 2 sacks, 1 FR), Kyle Bell (27 tackles, 1 INT), and Jarett Brown (22 tackles, 1 for loss).
Other keys to a victory, according to Bachtel, are creating scoring opportunities through special teams, turnover margin, and a reduction in penalties.
“We need to create a few turnovers,” Bachtel said. “Also if you look at last week we turned the ball over a few times where we really had things moving. We also have to cut out some of the undisciplined penalties we had from last week that really set us back behind the chains offensively. You start getting behind the chains and it changes everything. We have to stay on pace and on rhythm.
“We also have to find a way to set ourselves up in special teams to either score or set up a score, either with a blocked kick or a big return, and I think we’ll have some opportunities in that area to do that.”
| American SW Conference |
Conference Wins |
Conference Losses |
Overall Wins |
Overall Losses |
|
| Howard Payne | 5 | 0 | 6 | 0 | |
| Mary Hardin-Baylor | 5 | 0 | 6 | 0 | |
| Hardin-Simmons | 4 | 1 | 5 | 1 | |
| Belhaven | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | |
| East Texas Baptist | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
| McMurry | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | |
| Austin College | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | |
| Sul Ross | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | |
| Southwestern | 1 | 4 | 1 | 5 | |
| Texas Lutheran | 1 | 5 | 1 | 5 |
Week 7 Games
Howard Payne 21, Southwestern 17
Belhaven 44, Sul Ross 0
McMurry 48, Austin College 13
Mary Hardin-Baylor 49, Texas Lutheran 3
Hardin-Simmons 34, East Texas Baptist 0
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Week 8 Games
Belhaven at Howard Payne
Mary Hardin-Baylor at Sul Ross
Southwestern at Hardin-Simmons
East Texas Baptist at Austin College
McMurry at Texas Lutheran