UMHB Football overcomes halftime deficit in season-opening win against Bethel (TN)

Photo courtesy of David Morris

BELTON — It took all of 12 seconds for No. 8 UMHB to set the tone for the second half on Saturday night. 12 seconds for Kamerin Ferguson to take the handoff to the right side on UMHB’s first play of the third quarter and burst through the gap parted by the Crusader offensive line. 12 seconds for the senior to race 70 yards, untouched to the end zone. 12 seconds for UMHB to go from trailing by 4 in its 2025 season opener to seizing a lead they never gave back. 

No game is won or lost on a single play. But Ferguson’s 70-yard sprint to the end zone just 18 seconds into the second half sent a clear message: a shaky start wasn’t going to write the story on this night. 

“It was a tremendous team effort,” UMHB head coach Larry Harmon said after the 30-23 win over NAIA Bethel (TN). “You can find a mistake in any phase [of the game]. But they just kept grinding. They didn’t get down on themselves. They just kept looking to the next play. That’s what great teams do. 

“We’re a long ways from being considered a great team, but this is a good first step.”

Ferguson’s electrifying touchdown run was only the beginning. Two drives later, with Bethel’s defense packed inside to prevent another long gain on the ground, UMHB went to the perimeter.  Kirkland Michaux hit B.J. Stewart, running horizontally towards the right sideline, with a short pass, and the transfer from Trinity did the rest. Stewart, also UMHB’s primary kick and punt returner, showcased his remarkable speed in a 70-yard footrace to the end zone. The only Bethel defender in the vicinity that seemed to have a slight chance of catching Stewart really had no chance at all.

It was the first time since a 54-3 win over Southwestern Sept. 18, 2021 that the UMHB offense recorded both a 70+ yard touchdown run and a 70+ yard touchdown pass in the same game. And that five-minute stretch changed the entire outlook for UMHB. Bethel had no shortage of confidence heading into the locker room at halftime, having taken back a 20-16 lead with just 3:10 left in the second quarter. By only five minutes into the third, UMHB not only led, but led 30-20, a significant margin in a contest largely controlled by the play of both defenses. 

“While we were at halftime, we were talking about coming out and playing with swag, and getting the momentum back,” Ferguson, who rushed for 148 yards on 16 carries, noted. “Having that first one be a 70-yarder, I think everybody kind of woke up after that one.”

“That’s what our offense is capable of doing,” Harmon added. “I think we’re going to get in this [film], and we’re going to see that there were some decisions with the ball that we need to clean up. If we get those things cleaned up, we’re going to be really, really good.” 

Stewart’s touchdown marked The Cru’s final scoring play of the night, but the defense proved its capability in protecting a lead. Bethel mustered only three points through the second half’s entirety—a 26-yard field goal with 2:49 left—and high-profile transfer quarterback Destin Chance, who was 12-of-16 passing in the first half, completed just nine of his 21 passes in the second. 

Still, Bethel found itself with the ball down only a touchdown in the final 1:38 of the fourth quarter. What the Wildcats hoped was the makings of a game-tying drive lasted exactly three plays. UMHB sophomore safety Deion Drinkard, in the second varsity appearance of his young college career, leapt up only a few feet in front of the Crusader sideline, snatching Chance’s pass out of the air in a game-sealing interception. 

It was a full-circle moment in a game with a combined seven turnovers; UMHB’s very first offensive play resulted in a Bethel interception, and Bethel’s last offensive play ended in the same way, with UMHB coming up with the crucial takeaway. 

“I can’t be more proud of our kids,” Harmon said. “They showed tremendous heart, guts, drive, will—whatever you want to use. They showed it to come out here and get a win tonight.” 

Battling back from early adversity

Truthfully, the second half spark may not have been as memorable if not for the way UMHB struggled out of the gate. Plenty of teams would’ve reached for the panic button if placed in the same position as The Cru was in the opening quarter, where little went right, and even the home crowd of 5,148 couldn’t outmatch the momentum rapidly building on Bethel’s sideline. The Cru’s first three drives ended in this order: a 45-yard pick-six off Kirkland Michaux’s first pass in a UMHB uniform, a fumble in the red zone, followed by a missed 45-yard field goal attempt that sailed wide right. 

All the while Bethel’s up-tempo offense kept the pressure on, breaking through with 12:53 in the second quarter when Chance—a highly-touted transfer who threw for 3,593 yards at Illinois College in 2024—found his go-to target, Micah Jones, from 31 yards out for a 13-0 lead. Crusader Stadium fell quiet, with the exception of Bethel’s small visiting crowd, as the Wildcats celebrated their score.

Harmon said earlier in the week that UMHB’s non-D3 opponents would come in with “same kind of competition that the playoffs bring”. Bethel provided exactly that on Saturday night.  But the playoffs also tend to reveal much about a team’s identity and approach to adversity. In Week 1, with no in-season trends, stats, or previous results to draw from, UMHB’s response over the next several minutes was telling, not so much because of what they did, but how they did it. 

Seconds after Jones trotted into the end zone for Bethel’s second touchdown, Gaige Sanders rose up and blocked Bethel’s PAT attempt, deflecting the ball in the direction of senior Joey Johnson, who returned the blocked kick 87 yards for two points. 

Then came an encouraging drive from the offense, whose previous two possessions saw The Cru march inside Bethel’s 30-yard line both times, only to come away empty-handed. It took just two minutes, 26 seconds for UMHB to get over that hump, covering 75 yards in only seven plays as Michaux engineered the first touchdown drive of his college career. The graduate student faced a 3rd & 6 from the Bethel 10-yard line, and seeing no open receivers, took the ball across the goal line himself. 

Points on special teams? Check. Points on offense? Check. All that was left was for the defense to put points of its own on the board. Te’Ron Brown did just that on Bethel’s very next drive. 

Sanders broke loose into the backfield, and hit Chance hard as the quarterback tried to backpedal away. The force of Sanders’ sack jarred the ball from Chance’s hands and into Brown’s, with the senior defensive tackle showing no hesitation as he carried the ball 56 yards to the end zone. Down 13-0 just over four minutes before, UMHB flipped the script entirely to lead 16-13. It came as no surprise that Brown—a captain in his fourth season in Belton—was at the forefront of such an emotion-filled play that captured both the physicality and awareness of UMHB’s defensive front. 

“There were a lot of high emotions,” Brown said postgame, when asked about his momentum-shifting 56-yard fumble return. “Truthfully, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to play this year. I got a year [of eligibility] back during spring break. Honestly, I feel like I fell short last year, and I let my guys know every day, ‘I give y’all everything I’ve got, no matter what.’ It was definitely a surreal feeling [on that return].”

The defensive line kept constant pressure on Chance, Bethel offensive line

Aside from the dramatic difference between the first three drives of the first and second halves for the Crusader offense, the second biggest storyline to emerge on Saturday night surrounded the defense’s pass rush, of which Brown played a considerable role in. 

Bethel’s new-look offense from first-year offensive coordinator Drew Chance features a quick tempo and short passes, something the Wildcats used effectively through their first several drives. But as the game wore on, UMHB’s defensive pressure affected Destin Chance more and more, as he was repeatedly forced to scramble from the pocket within seconds of the snap. With inexperience at offensive line and receiver, Bethel’s passing game soon stagnated. Multiple times Chance seemed to be on an island in the backfield, desperately trying to generate offense to no avail, with UMHB’s defensive backs tightly covering Bethel’s receivers and the defensive linemen powering right through Bethel’s blocks. The end result: 4.0 sacks for a loss of 27 yards, three fumbles by Chance, and an average of 6.1 yards per passing attempt (by comparison, Michaux averaged 8.7 yds/pass attempt for UMHB). 

“That was our biggest thing throughout fall camp: rushing the passer and getting to the quarterback,” Brown, who had three tackles and a pair of fumble recoveries. “We want to disrupt his timing and get him off his spot. That’s what we hang our hat on. We’ve got a lot of speed, and when you watch the tape, it’ll show.”

Harmon had a similar comment when asked about the effectiveness of the pass rush and UMHB’s defensive line play as a whole. Not only were The Cru quick to pressure Chance when he dropped back to pass, but UMHB kept Bethel’s run game from considerable gains as well. Even with senior running back Jordan Cason used more frequently in the second half, Bethel averaged just 2.3 yards per carry, a stark difference from UMHB’s average of 4.6. The Cru also tallied 8.0 tackles for loss. 

“I went into the game thinking we might not be quite as good up front as we’ve been in the past, but they just played so hard,” Harmon noted. “We might be different [compared to past years]. We’re not as strong, but we have a little more quickness. That might be what it is.”

A solid day for Michaux, Stewart in debuts with The Cru

A handful of newcomers made their UMHB debuts against Bethel, including Stewart, who had a team-high six catches for 108 yards. Standing at 5’7 with lightning-quick speed, Stewart became the first Crusader receiver with a 100-yard receiving game in his first season at UMHB since Ernest Musue’s 101-yard performance on Sept. 28, 2019. It was the second 100-yard game of Stewart’s college career, with the first coming against Wheaton in 2022. 

In his first career start since the 2019 UIL 6A state final, Michaux settled in after his two first-half interceptions, throwing for 218 yards while completing 76% of his passes (19 of 25). His completion percentage—and therefore the team completion percentage—was the highest in a single game since Kyle King and Jackson Tingler combined to go 19-of-25 in UMHB’s Nov. 19, 2022 playoff win over Huntingdon (King was 18-of-24, Tingler was 1-of-1). The Illinois transfer completed passes to six different players against a solid Bethel defense on Saturday night. 

Up Next

UMHB has an open date next week before hosting No. 24 UW-Whitewater at Crusader Stadium on Sept. 20. It will be the fourth-straight season the two longtime D-III powers have met during the regular season, as UMHB seeks its first home win over the Warhawks since the 2018 playoffs.