Stewart's 4 TDs, Strong start in both halves, lift UMHB to 62-14 win over ETBU

Photo by Luke Zayas/True To The Cru/@lukezayas_photography

BELTON — UMHB couldn’t have asked for a much better start on Saturday afternoon against ETBU.

It began with the defense, who opened the game by forcing a 3-and-out. Then came BJ Stewart’s 46-yard punt return, setting up the Crusader offense just 15 yards from the end zone, where Asa Osbourn soon scored out of the wildcat formation, taking the direct snap as the running back.

Samuel Steffe and Da’Marion Morris each intercepted a pass from ETBU quarterback Jaylen Spriggs later in the quarter, and The Cru turned those takeaways into points both times. Kirkland Michaux and Stewart connected on the first of their two touchdown passes from 26 yards out, and one play after the defense stopped ETBU short on fourth down, Kamerin Ferguson took a handoff 63 yards down the right sideline for another score.

In that 15-minute stretch, UMHB asserted its dominance inside Crusader Stadium, setting the tone with a balanced offense, relentless defense, and explosive return game. By the end of the first quarter, UMHB had out-gained ETBU, 184-71, held the Tiger offense to an 0-for-3 success rate on third down, and led 24-0.

After having struggled to find momentum in the opening half of numerous games in weeks prior, UMHB flipped the script in its final game before the anticipated rematch with sixth-ranked Hardin-Simmons. Behind that quick start—which continued into the second quarter with Stewart’s 61-yard punt return touchdown—UMHB seized a commanding lead that only grew larger, winning 62-14.

“We jumped on them early,” UMHB head coach Larry Harmon said postgame. “We executed our offense. We took what they gave us.”

In the process, The Cru set new season-highs for both points scored and fewest points allowed. 5-3 overall and 3-1 in ASC play, UMHB won its third straight—all three of which have come in Belton—while ETBU remains winless in conference action.

“We needed this one real bad,” Stewart, who had a memorable day both as a receiver and returner, said. “We have a lot of energy going into next week. We’ll come in tomorrow, watch film, and we’ll be ready to go Tuesday.”

It’s difficult to top an eight-catch, 119-yard, three-touchdown performance like Stewart had against HPU a week ago. And yet, he managed to do exactly that on Saturday. The fleet-footed senior seemingly drew the attention of everyone in the stadium each time he touched the ball, as Stewart led The Cru’s offense with seven catches for 96 yards and two touchdowns, and returned five punts for 112 yards and a touchdown. As for his lone kickoff return? He took that one to the end zone, too.

It happened on the second half’s opening kickoff, as Stewart caught the ball just inside his own end zone and turned the accelerator to full throttle. He ran to his left then turned up the sideline, patiently running behind his blockers as ETBU’s kicking unit tried desperately—with no success—to disrupt his path to the end zone.

But the Shreveport native was too quick, too elusive, to be tripped up. 15 yards from the end zone, he cut back inside and broke away, stretching UMHB’s lead to 38-7 and making history as only the third Crusader to return a kickoff 100 yards.

100 yard kickoff return for BJ Stewart to open the second half and extend UMHB’s lead to 38-7 over ETBU.

BJ Stewart, lightning in a bottle! ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/bIKQ6a2Rlr
— CouchCru 🛋 (@CouchCru17) November 1, 2025

It is the first such return since De’Nerian Thomas did so in 2016, as Stewart joins Aerttrail Robinson and Thomas as the only players in program history to take a kickoff from goal line to goal line. Stewart is also believed to be the first Crusader to record a receiving touchdown, punt return touchdown, and kickoff return touchdown in the same game.

“All year, coach has been telling me we need one on special teams, and we’ve been pretty close,” said Stewart, who is averaging 45.09 yards per kick return in his first season in Belton. “I just had to trust the guys and let them set the blocks up for me. I hit the hole when I saw it open.”

The historic, momentum-grabbing return from Stewart couldn’t have been more timely. For as stellar as the first half was on all fronts, UMHB fell into a lull in the final six minutes or so of the second quarter.

Up 31-0 after Stewart’s 61-yard punt return touchdown, The Cru appeared to ease up a bit, which opened the door for ETBU. The Tigers went 50 yards in five plays for their lone scoring drive of the first three quarters, with Spriggs catching the Crusader secondary out of position on a 26-yard touchdown pass with 5:52 left until halftime. The UMHB offense, coming off its first 3-and-out of the game, went 46 yards in nine plays, but then failed to convert on a crucial fourth down inside the ETBU 30-yard line, turning it over.

All in all, The Cru punted on three of its final four possessions with the turnover on downs sandwiched between, while ETBU also snapped the defense’s shutout bid. Harmon wasn’t pleased.

“I thought the last five-and-a-half minutes of the second quarter, we let it off,” Harmon said afterwards. “You could see it in our body language.”

But that lull didn’t persist. Instead, halftime proved to be a turnaround point, and Stewart’s big play to jumpstart things in the third quarter was evidence of the intensity that came out of the locker room. The game may have already been in hand, but the Crusaders weren’t satisfied to just hold onto a lead, and it was the pressure they kept on the gas pedal in the second half that made Saturday’s win feel like the 48-point blowout that it was.

“You know what’s great? It was coach-started, but then it was accepted by the player leadership and they took it over,” Harmon added. “What I thought was going to happen [in the second half] happened.”

The Crusader defense forced five straight punts coming out of the intermission, then came up with a fumble recovery from Brody Woods late in the fourth quarter. Twice in the third quarter UMHB sacked Spriggs on third down, with Brandon McGruder getting into the backfield for the first before Te’Ron Brown followed with another nearly four minutes later.

Both sacks put the Tigers in punting situations, and for most of the second half, Spriggs scrambled in the backfield with nowhere to go. The defensive front overwhelmed the ETBU offensive line, tallying a season-best 6.0 sacks in the contest, and the Crusader defensive backs stuck tightly to the Tiger receivers, taking away passing options downfield. That, combined with holding ETBU to just 1.8 yards per rush—and 51 total rushing yards in the game—kept the Tiger offense on the sidelines. Less than half of ETBU’s second-half possessions (3-of-7) spanned more than three plays.

“That was one of the pieces we had to put together: finishing the game,” said McGruder, who had 3.5 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks. “And we came out here and did that. It feels good.”

The overall health of the defense certainly played into such a dominant effort, as UMHB kept the clamps on ETBU from the game’s first snap. McGruder and Gaige Sanders both had full workloads on the defensive line after being limited or unavailable for multiple weeks, and as Harmon said postgame, getting key contributors like that defensive line duo makes a significant difference. McGruder and Sanders combined for 3.5 of UMHB’s 6.0 sacks and 5.5 of the defense’s 11.0 tackles for loss.

“It’s amazing what happens when you get some guys back,” Harmon said. “It made a big difference. “There’s a lot of excitement right now and a lot of buy-in. We have a chance to be a really good team if we just lock in and play self-disciplined football.”

While the defense locked down, the offense continued widening the gap, scoring on three of its first four drives of the second half. Michaux’s 50-yard touchdown pass over the middle to Stewart got the rhythm going again, and one drive later, it took just two plays for Kamerin Ferguson to record his second rushing score of the game, this one from seven yards out, stretching the lead to 52-7.

UMHB finished with 471 yards of total offense, as Michaux threw for 216 and Ferguson netted 100 on the ground, leading the way along with Stewart. The Cru scored on all five of its trips to the red zone, and recorded 17 points off three defensive takeaways, crossing the 60-point mark against an ASC opponent for the fourth time in Harmon’s tenure as head coach.

The dominance across both halves in the win, and the confidence that will inevitably stem from it, only increases the anticipation for what next Saturday will bring. The Cru wasn’t close to pulling off the Top 10 upset when the two met in Abilene on Oct. 11, but the team that stepped on the field that afternoon was a stark contrast to the one that cruised against ETBU on Saturday. And that fact alone suggests that the rematch between The Cru and Cowboys may play out much differently in Belton. In the homestretch of the regular season, UMHB isn’t holding anything back.

“The energy before the game was great,” McGruder said. “I just knew we were going to come out here and get it done today.”