MARSHALL — Howard Payne University got touchdowns from five different players, but it wasn’t enough as the Yellow Jackets were outscored 42-33 by East Texas Baptist University on Saturday afternoon inside Ornelas Stadium.

The Tigers improved to 4-1 on the year and 1-1 in American Southwest Conference play, while the Yellow Jackets fell to 1-4 overall and 0-2 in conference matchups.

Zy Gravitt led Howard Payne’s passing attack with

Blessing Ngene paced the Yellow Jackets rushing attack by accumulating 89 yards over the course of the game, averaging 4.7 yards per carry. Ngene also tacked on 25 receiving yards and one touchdown. Kiante Stoker also added 38 yards and one touchdown on the ground, averaging 4.2 yards per carry.

Gus Charles reeled in 10 catches for 150 yards and one score. Ellis Myers got in on the action in the passing game as well, hauling in five balls for 76 yards and one touchdown.

Isaiah McDonald showed out for the Howard Payne defense, recording one recovered fumble. Peyton Lowe added 10 tackles, 2.0 TFL, one sack, and one forced fumble and Elijah Dillard had 1.0 TFL and one sack in the loss.

The Howard Payne offense did a good job keeping drives alive, converting on 62.5 percent of third-down attempts going 10-for-16 on the day. The Yellow Jackets also went 2-for-2 on fourth down.

Defensively, Howard Payne held up fairly well against the East Texas Baptist passing attack, holding the Tigers to 196 yards through the air.

Howard Payne’s offense took advantage of its trips to the red zone, scoring on four of its five trips, with all of those scores being touchdowns.

How It HappenedHoward Payne took a 6-0 lead over East Texas Baptist after scoring the game’s first points with 10:14 left in the first quarter.East Texas Baptist responded to go ahead 7-6 before the Yellow Jackets got on the scoreboard again on a 41-yard touchdown reception from to Myers to jump back in front 13-7.

East Texas Baptist fought back to take a 28-13 lead before Howard Payne put a touchdown on the board to cut into the lead with :39 left in the second quarter and make it a 28-20 game.The Yellow Jackets then scored again, narrowing the gap to 28-27.

East Texas Baptist extended its lead to 35-27 until Howard Payne got on the scoreboard again to narrow the gap with 2:12 remaining in the fourth quarter and make it a 35-33 game. Howard Payne didn’t score again and East Texas Baptist tacked on seven more points to finish off the scoring.

Game Notes» Howard Payne outgained East Texas Baptist 442-380, including a 325-196 advantage through the air.
» Howard Payne had their highest scoring quarter in the first period, when they put up 13 points.
» Howard Payne converted 10 of 16 third downs while East Texas Baptist was successful on 8 of 13.
» Lowe led the Yellow Jackets with 10 tackles.
» Howard Payne went 2-for-2 on fourth down, converting on 100 percent of attempts.
» Howard Payne forced one red zone turnover in the contest.
» Howard Payne won the time of possession battle 34:56 to 25:04.
» Kaden Brown led the Tigers passing attack, completing 16 of his 27 attempts for 196 yards and two touchdowns.
» Paul Woodard led the East Texas Baptist rushing attack with 98 yards and three touchdowns.

The Yellow Jackets will be be back at home next week versus the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in a Homecoming game starting at 2:30 pm.