Undefeated HPU rewrites record book in 73-30 homecoming victory over Sul Ross

October 2, 2021 at 6:58 pm Updated: October 3rd, 2021 at 8:48 am Derrick Stuckly

The best start to a Howard Payne football season since 2002 continued Saturday afternoon at Gordon Wood Stadium, as the Yellow Jackets put on an offensive show in front of the homecoming crowd en route to a 73-30 triumph over the American Southwest Conference rival Sul Ross Lobos.

“We looked up at halftime when we were going in and to hear the Howard Payne crowd, it gave flashbacks to what it was like in the late 90s and early 2000s when I was a player here,” said HPU first-year head coach Jason Bachtel, whose team led 45-10 at intermission. “It was good for our kids because what they’re doing is building it. We use the old ‘Field of Dreams’ motto, ‘If you build it they will come’ and people were here today and it was really awesome to see that we’re starting to get back to where we want to be. We still have a long way to go, by no stretch of the imagination are we there, but it’s good to see everybody here and such a great turnout.”

At least two HPU records were broken and another was tied as the ASC co-leading Yellow Jackets (5-0, 4-0) produced 10 touchdowns against a Sul Ross (1-3, 1-3) defense that had surrendered just 53 points in its first three games – including 27 against seventh-ranked Hardin-Simmons.

Howard Payne also scored its most points in a single game since 1928, according to the HPU Sports Information Department. The last time the Yellow Jackets reached 70 points was Nov. 15, 2003 – a 70-21 home victory over Louisiana College.

“Everything was clicking,” Bachtel said. “We thought we could expose a few things and obviously we did. I haven’t seen the stats but I think what you’re going to see is we had a chance to maybe break a few records. Our kids came out and responded really well, especially after a big win last week, and then we come back and stack another one and that’s what we want to continue to do.”

Reigning ASC Offensive Player of the Week Landon McKinney established a new HPU record by accounting for seven touchdowns in one game, and tied a school record with six scoring tosses in one contest. Adam King tossed six touchdown passes in 2001 against East Texas Baptist.

Also, kicker Blake Phipps set a new school mark with 10 extra-points in one game, eclipsing the previous record of eight which occurred three times in 1987, 2002 and 2003.

“He’s a stud,” Bachtel said of McKinney. “Everybody in the conference has said that. He was voted to postseason and preseason honors for that reason. You’re going to go back and see some mistakes, and those are correctable mistakes, but he did everything we asked him to and we’re excited to have him here.”

McKinney completed 17 of 30 passes for 335 yards and all six of his scoring tosses went to different receivers – 31 yards to Otis Lanier at 4:24 of the first quarter; 41 yards to Max McCuiston at 1:26 of the first quarter; 39 yards to Quentin Gray at 11:21 of the second quarter; 10 yards to Jake Parker at 5:20 of the second quarter; 27 yards to Hunter Cheek at 3:15 of the second quarter; and 13 yards to Casey Dufner at 2:01 of the third quarter. McKinney also ran for an 11-yard score at 6:57 of the third period.

“That’s one of the things we want to do, make sure all of our guys are getting involved,” Bachtel said of multiple Yellow Jackets reaching the end zone. “They understand everybody has their role, but at the same time we’re pretty explosive when you start looking at all our receivers and running backs. You’ve got a good group and for the most part we’re still pretty young.”

Howard Payne finished with 559 yards of total offense, including 164 on the ground. Tauren Bradley led the way with 61 yards rushing and Stephen Willis chipped in 49.

Parker also scored on a special teams play, returning a punt 87 yards for a touchdown with 1:57 left before halftime, boosting the cushion to 45-10. The score marked the second week in a row Howard Payne produced a special teams touchdown, as Selah Smith returned a kick 81 yards for six points in last week’s 49-38 win at East Texas Baptist.

“Special teams is a big part of the ballgame and the last two weeks they’ve played a big role for us,” Bachtel said. “I tried to alert everyone about Jake Parker, and he actually had two today with one called back, and I think that one might have been even more impressive.”

The Yellow Jackets also tacked on second-half touchdowns on an 11-yard pass from Nick Infante to Javonte Russell with 10:26 left, and a 1-yard run by Jeremiah Milton with 52 seconds remaining.

Defensively, the Yellow Jackets gave up 326 total yards – 240 passing and 86 rushing – and did not force a turnover. The Lobos scored three touchdowns through the air and a fourth on a kick return in the closing seconds of the contest.

Leading tacklers for HPU were Jacob Korrodi with six, including three for loss; James Jakubowski with six; Kaleb Jones with five and 1.5 for loss; Aaron Alderete with five and one sack; and Peyton Lowe, Brayden Rhea, Tyrianno Carrizosa, Dai’Shawn Fisher, Nicholas Acker and Milton with four apiece.

“I’ll be honest, I paid a little bit of attention to the defense, I was making offensive corrections, but I think you’re going to see our guys stepped up,” Bachtel said. “We might have given away some stuff early in the ballgame, but in the second half it was complete dominance and shut down.”

The Yellow Jackets are off until Saturday, Oct. 16 when they travel to Southwestern for a 1 p.m. duel, where a victory would ensure Howard Payne’s first winning season since 2005. Then, three of the final four games for Howard Payne will be played at Gordon Wood Stadium.

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AMERICAN SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE

Conference Overall

Howard Payne 4 0 5 0

Mary Hardin-Baylor 4 0 5 0

Hardin-Simmons 3 1 4 1

Belhaven 2 2 3 2

East Texas Baptist 2 2 3 2

Austin College 1 3 1 3

McMurry 1 3 1 3

Sul Ross 1 3 1 3

Southwestern 1 3 1 4