The Howard Payne Yellow Jackets snapped a three-game skid with their first home victory of the season Saturday at Gordon Wood Stadium, pummeling the first-year Westgate Christian Ravens, 75-0.
The Yellow Jackets led 17-0 after one quarter, 38-0 at halftime, and 54-0 through three quarters.
Howard Payne finished with 449 yards of total offense – 260 passing and 189 rushing – while the defense yielded 184 yards – including just 23 rushing on 36 carries – to Westgate Christian (2-3) and forced the game’s only turnover.
The Yellow Jackets scored in the first quarter on a 3-yard Kiante Stoker run, a 30-yard pass from Zy Gravitt to Gus Charles and a 44-yard field goal by Osvaldo Gomez.
Howard Payne’s three second-quarter touchdowns were the result of a Jacob Roberts 6-yard reception from Gravitt, then Gravitt connected with Charles again on a 68-yard scoring toss, and Stoker added a 1-yard carry.
In the third quarter, Gomez booted another field goal from 36 yards out, then Glendon Casas-Willis hurled a 33-yard touchdown to Derin Jackson and Jyrin Burns found the end zone on a 10-yard carry.
The final three touchdowns for the Yellow Jackets in the fourth quarter came on a 4-yard run by Gage Powell, a 2-yard carry by Candelario Barrera, and a 1-yard rush by Kaleb Harris.
Gravitt completed 10 of 18 passes for 183 yards and three scores for HPU, Charles recorded three catches for 115 yards and two touchdowns, and Brownwood graduate Konlyn Anderson led the way on the ground with a team-best 43 yards. A dozen different Yellow Jackets carried the ball and 11 Howard Payne players caught at least one pass.
Defensively for HPU, Jacob Urbina chalked up six tackles followed by five from Justin Kay as 35 Yellow Jackets recorded at least one tackle.
Next week, the Yellow Jackets resume American Southwest Conference action at East Texas Baptist (3-1, 0-1), which suffered a 42-28 loss to Mary Hardin-Baylor (3-1, 1-0) Saturday. HPU dropped its only conference game to date to Hardin-Simmons, 38-6, in the season opener.
