Kept out of the end zone in road opener, UMHB falls to D2 Mars Hill, 21-7

Photo by Luke Zayas/True To The Cru

MARS HILL, North Carolina – In many ways, it was the same story, second verse, for No. 16 UMHB on Saturday afternoon.

The offense struggled to move the ball, find rhythm, and finish drives in both halves, just as they did in the 26-6 loss to UW-Whitewater a week ago. The defense surrendered a pair of game-shifting touchdown drives in the third quarter, much like what happened last Saturday against the Warhawks.

And in the end, even a solid overall defensive effort was not nearly enough to keep pace with The Cru’s D2 opposition, as UMHB fell to Mars Hill, 21-7, in a game whose kickoff was postponed for well over an hour due to lightning. Four of The Cru’s seven points came on a pair of safeties, and the offense failed to score a touchdown for the first time since being shutout in the 2017 Stagg Bowl.

The loss drops UMHB to 1-2 overall heading into its ASC opener next Saturday at East Texas Baptist, who is off to a 3-0 start. Mars Hill, a member of D2’s South Atlantic Conference, improved to 3-1 with its second home win of the season.

MHU took a narrow 7-5 lead into halftime, the product of a back-and-forth first half that featured a combined nine punts. But the Lions made key adjustments at halftime, and while UMHB sputtered in its first several drives of the second half, MHU capitalized, seizing a two-score lead.

The Lions’ second drive began with a 22-yard completion from JR Martin to Edward Louis Jr.—Martin’s top target with six catches for a team-best 109 yards—and after briefly going back to its run game, Martin dropped back and found Louis again, this time in the back right corner of the end zone. The 26-yard touchdown pass pushed the Lions’ lead to 14-5, and just one drive later, MHU’s offense found its way to the end zone yet again.

After forcing a third-straight UMHB punt, MHU needed only three plays to go 71 yards and widen the gap yet again. On a well-designed double pass, Martin tossed a short lateral completion to running back Jon Gullette, who then turned his eyes upfield and fired a deep pass down the sideline, finding receiver Charlie Guinade in stride. Guinade did the rest, racing untouched across the goal line for a 21-5 lead with 53 seconds left in the third.

For The Cru, the second long touchdown was a back-breaker. UMHB’s defense, who remained resilient all afternoon, came up with a safety in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, cutting into the deficit when Gullette was taken down behind the goal line by Braden Eberwine. But it came one play after UMHB running back Asa Osbourn was stopped short on a crucial fourth-and-goal handoff from the 1-yard line, another bad break that kept the Crusaders out of the end zone. As it turned out, it proved to be the best chance they had at a touchdown drive, and the safety, while indicative of the defensive line’s strength against the run, didn’t provide much recompense.

While The Cru got the ball back as a result of the safety, it led to another three-and-out possession, and Logan Childs’ fourth punt of the second half. From there, MHU put together a 10-play drive that spanned just 29 yards but chewed seven minutes off the clock, essentially sealing the win by the time the Lions’ punted it back with 2:51 left. Left with little time to mount a rally, The Cru turned it over on downs on their final drive, with Seth Mouser’s fourth-down pass to B.J. Stewart broken up near the sideline by Nissi Mukulu.

Mouser, listed as the No. 2 quarterback on UMHB’s two-deep depth chart heading into Saturday, was 5-of-8 passing for 32 yards in a limited role. Starter Kirkland Michaux went 15-of-28 for 126 yards through the air.

But interestingly, neither quarterback had the longest completion on the day for UMHB. That distinction belongs to Stewart, who was credited with a 28-yard completion on one of The Cru’s few offensive highlights. On the second play of the fourth, Michaux tossed the ball backwards to Stewart, who was sprinting to his left behind the line, and the senior receiver then flipped it to Luke Vidal, running parallel to Stewart, but towards the right sideline. The double-reverse play yielded a big gain for The Cru as part of the drive that ultimately took UMHB down to the MHU 1-yard line.

MHU generated the early momentum after both sides traded punts, with the Lions relying on the legs of Martin to sustain their second drive. He answered the call, keeping the ball in his hands on several plays as part of an 11-play, 91-yard scoring drive. Martin carried the ball four times for 32 yards in the five-minute drive, keeping it himself on the 3-yard touchdown run that put MHU in the lead.

But to its credit, UMHB’s defense refused to fold, even after MHU marched downfield without much resistance. The Crusaders came back out and held the Lions scoreless for the rest of the first half, with no better example than on the Lions’ very next drive. After Childs punted from inside UMHB’s own end zone—the ball was spotted on the 1-yard line—MHU took possession at the UMHB 25-yard line, practically already in field goal range. But the defense stepped up in spite of that, putting pressure on Martin that led to an incompletion on 3rd & 4 and brought up a 38-yard field goal attempt that missed, resulting in an empty possession for MHU.

The Cru forced three more punts before the half was over, and Martin carried the ball just two more times in that span, rushing for only five more yards. At the intermission, UMHB actually had more first downs (11 to 9) and more passing yards (88 to 77), though MHU dominated in the rushing category (77 to 29).

UMHB answered MHU’s first-quarter field goal miss with a made field goal of its own with 14:44 in the second quarter, and it had special meaning for kicker Jack Hight. A true freshman from San Antonio, Hight converted from 24 yards out to cap a nine-play, 70-yard drive. It marked the first collegiate field goal of Hight’s young career in Belton, and went down as UMHB’s lone offensive scoring play against MHU.

Ultimately, that was the only chance Hight got, as several more drives began with promising results, but fizzled out as the MHU defense forced The Cru into difficult third-down situations and largely took away the run game. UMHB ended the day with just 42 rushing yards, averaging a mere 1.4 yards per carry against MHU’s hard-nosed defensive front. The Lions finished with 121 yards on the ground, led by 83 from Gullette.

Penalties also played into the outcome for both sides, but particularly The Cru’s return unit in the first half. Twice, UMHB had sizable returns negated due to penalties, with the first—an 84-yard kick return from Stewart for a touchdown in the second quarter—erased due to a holding call. The second return went beyond midfield to the MHU 44-yard line, a 46-yard runback on a punt by Da’Marion Morris, but was wiped away due to a block in the back.

A combined nine first downs stemmed from penalties, with five of MHU’s 20 first downs coming as the result of flags thrown against UMHB. Four of The Cru’s 16 first downs came on penalties as well, and in total, UMHB was called for 14 penalties for 151 yards. The officiating was fairly balanced, however, with MHU flagged 17 times for 155 yards.

UMHB’s attention now shifts towards ETBU, and a game that carries plenty of weight in The Cru’s pursuit of a return trip to the postseason. While a difficult loss, Saturday’s defeat at MHU will not impact The Cru’s ranking in the NCAA Power Index, as non-D3 results do not count in the system. But the ASC opener on the road? It counts immensely. The challenge now will be learning from the miscues seen on Saturday in all three phases and making the necessary adjustments to avoid a repeat of them, as UMHB aims to get back to .500 in Marshall.