Howard Payne’s one and only football game at Gordon Wood Stadium this season took place on Sept. 7, but that all changes at 4 p.m. Saturday as the Yellow Jackets return home after three straight road contests to face Westgate Christian in the final non-conference encounter of the season.

“It’s almost like we don’t know how to react,” HPU second-year head coach Kevin Batchel said. “On Thursdays we’ve been loading buses and trucks and planning to head out on Friday mornings, so we’re excited to be back home. Hopefully we’ll play well.”

The Yellow Jackets (1-3) are coming off a 36-29 loss at five-time national champion Wittenberg last week, a game in which HPU trailed just 9-0 at halftime, but fell into a 29-7 hole from which it couldn’t escape.

“It was a tale of two halves again in different ways,” Bachtel said. “We started the game well defensively and didn’t play well on offense. We had a couple of drives where we felt we were going to get it going and then shot ourselves in the foot. On the flip side, we played really good offense in the second half and didn’t play so well on defense. We stopped the run well, but we blew a couple of coverages, missed communication on the back end that gave them 14 points pretty easily. But I was proud of the way the guys fought through the game. Never once did the guys think they were completely out of it and never once did I think they guys stopped playing.”

The Westgate Christian Ravens (1-2), a first-year football program located in Houston, earned their first-ever victory over John Melvin, 55-14, last week. The Ravens have also faced Texas College (54-3) and Mary Hardin-Baylor (85-6) and were dealt lopsided losses.

Against Texas College, Westgate gave up 543 yards, including 408 passing with seven touchdown tosses. Versus UMHB, the Ravens trailed 71-6 at halftime and finished with 108 total yards, including -35 rushing, with five turnovers, while yielding 562 yards, including 357 on the ground.

“We don’t know much about our opponent other than they’re extremely athletic,” Bachtel said. “ Not to take anything away from them, but we have spent a ton of time on us in practice this week. Everything we’ve focused on this week in practice was good on good and us focusing on trying to get better at every position. But I’m not approaching this game like it’s going to be one-sided, they’re extremely athletic, they’re scary.”

The Yellow Jackets enter the contest averaging 26 points and 370 yards – 307 passing and 63 rushing – per game, with seven turnovers, while giving up 29 points and 363 yards – 222 through the air and 141 on the ground – with six takeaways.

Offensively, quarterback Zy Gravitt has completed 67 of 118 passes for 1,189 yards with seven touchdowns and three interceptions, while leading receivers include Gus Charles (21-435, TD), Kristopher Creel (11-129), Jackson Meller (10-231, 2 TD), Mateo Hernandez (6-134, TD), Klyderion Campbell (5-87, TD), and Ellis Myers (4-99, TD). Weapons out of the backfield are Blessing Ngene (136 rushing yards, 2 TDs), Kiante Stoker (70 yards, 2 TDs), and Jalen Davis (48 yards, TD).

Defensive standouts for Howard Payne are Kyle Shaw (32 tackles), Jacob Korrodi (29 tackles, 2 for loss, 1 sack, 1 interception), KC Cornelius (27 tackles, 1.5 for loss, 1 interception), Peyton Lowe (20 tackles, 1.5 for loss), Kadarius Carr (18 tackles), and Cade Rochinshki (16 tackles, 2.5 for loss).

“We have to find a way to play four quarters,” Bachtel said in regard to Saturday’s goals. “We haven’t put a four-quarter game together yet. We’ve played good at times and not so good at times. We have to start fast on both sides of the ball, limit turnovers, and we’re beat up on both sides of the ball so we’ll be without some key guys this week. That can be a good thing, though, because as we get back into conference play next week and we can find us some guys that can help with depth.”