The Howard Payne Yellow Jackets wrapped up the first half of American Southwest Conference football action with a 41-0 homecoming loss to Mary Hardin-Baylor Saturday afternoon at Gordon Wood Stadium.
Howard Payne (2-5, 0-3) finished with just 186 yards of total offense – 162 passing and 24 rushing – with three turnovers. The Yellow Jackets also gave up a pair of safeties on special teams miscues – a blocked punt out of the back of the end zone and a bad snap out of the end zone on another punt.
UMHB (4-2, 2-1) compiled 484 yards – 268 through the air and 216 on the ground – and gave the ball away just once.
Jake Wright threw touchdown passes of 13 yards to Jerry Cephus and 3 yards to TJ Rone, while Kamerine Ferguson scored on a 2-yard carry and Joey Johnson returned an interception 30 yards for six points. Edwin Lopez also booted field goals of 42, 22 and 29 yards for UMHB.
Wright completed 22 of 35 passes for 268 yards, Duante Blake led the way with 76 yards on the ground, Cephus grabbed a team-high five catches covering 84 yards.
For HPU, Zy Gravitt connected on 16 of 30 passes for 161 yards with three picks, while Gus Charles caught three passes for 63 yards and Jackson Meller finished with three receptions for 36 yards. Blessing Ngene rushed for a team-best 20 yards for the Jackets.
Defensively, Jacob Urbina and Peyton Lowe led the Yellow Jackets with eight tackles followed by seven from Cameron Hall and six from Kadarius Carr.
The Yellow Jackets have a bye next week before starting the second half of ASC action at Hardin-Simmons on Nov. 2.
