UMHB rises to the challenge: Poise, preparation pay off as Crusaders take down No. 5 Hardin-Simmons

Photo by Luke Zayas/True To The Cru/Backwards Hat Media

BELTON — The celebratory scene inside Crusader Stadium said it all as Hardin-Simmons’ fourth-down pass fell incomplete. 

Coaches jumped into the air, high-fiving the defensive players coming off the field who had successfully held the ASC’s highest-scoring offense to just 10 points. Players chest-bumped in celebration, the emotion of a win of this magnitude evident on their faces. The band, on cue, broke into a victory tune as the crowd roared, just as it had done so many times down the stretch of a game that had its fair share of momentum swings. 

And minutes after the final horn, those same coaches and players ran to the corner of the south end zone to sing the UMHB fight song right along with many of those same fans who had come to Crusader Stadium hoping that this might be the end result. At the tail end of a four-game homestand, the Crusaders had gone through this routine in each of the previous three weeks as they built a win streak.

But on Saturday it felt different. It was different. 

This was fifth-ranked Hardin-Simmons, only the third Top 5 opponent in the last decade to come into Crusader Stadium during the regular season. This was the same team that handed The Cru a 34-7 loss only four weeks before in Abilene. This was one of only eight undefeated teams remaining in Division III. Not anymore. 

In a must-win situation, UMHB didn’t wither from the pressure. Instead, the resilience built in the aftermath of the Oct. 11 loss at HSU carried The Cru to a 21-17 victory, their first over the Cowboys in the regular season since Sept. 24, 2022.

“I’m excited, I’m happy,” UMHB head coach Larry Harmon said of the emotions running through his mind postgame. “I’m a little relieved, because the mistakes we made kept them in it. But we talked about there being no self-limitation put on us. 

“[We said], ‘We’ve been hurting ourselves, let’s stop doing that. Play each play. Each play is going to last about six seconds. And let’s not be affected by the success or failure of that play. Just keep playing.’ I am proud of our guys for doing that. I think doing that really shook off a lot of negative stuff that might’ve broken us the first time we played them, but didn’t break us this week. 

“Everybody can see the progress that these guys are making, and our kids don’t get enough credit for how hard that is. We’re tracking in the right direction.”

Four weeks ago, UMHB left Abilene with a sub-.500 record of 2-3. After Saturday’s win? They are three games above .500, 6-3 overall, 4-1 in the American Southwest Conference, and still alive in the quest for a playoff bid heading into next week’s regular season finale at Howard Payne.

“A lot,” sophomore defensive end Gaige Sanders responded, when asked how much the October loss in Abilene motivated him and The Cru. “Especially since I didn’t play [due to injury]. I was at home watching. It really lit a fire under me.”

That fire was on full display against HSU’s offense, and it wasn’t limited to just Sanders, who had a stellar day with 1.5 sacks and five tackles. The entire defense played with an edge, sacking HSU quarterback Kyle Brown five times while racking up a season-high 15.0 tackles for loss. The Cowboy offense went backwards 77 yards as a result of The Cru’s tackles behind the line of scrimmage, adding up to a long and unsuccessful day for an offense that came to Belton averaging 488.6 yards per game, the 13th-most in the country. On Saturday, the Cowboys mustered just 276 yards, and found the end zone just once as an offense for the first time since Sept. 22, 2023. 

“I don’t want to take anything away from our D-Line and how hard they played,” Harmon said. “They made us look good as coaches. We try to give them situations where they can be successful but then they’ve got to go do it.”

And they did. Consistently. HSU tied for its season-low in third-down conversion rate, moving the chains just four times on 16 third-down plays, and the Cowboys were only 2-of-5 on fourth downs as well. That included HSU’s final play with under 20 seconds left, as Brown took the snap from the 50-yard line on 4th & 2, and immediately fired the ball to his right. But it was thrown behind Wes Douglas into tight coverage, yet another stand from a defense that was reliable all afternoon. 

“Just stay strong,” Sanders said of the message as UMHB’s defense went back on the field with 2:24 left for HSU’s final drive. “We were confident and had put in the work. We knew what we could do. We just had to put it on the field.”

It isn’t often a team wins when it turns the ball over four times. But UMHB managed to do exactly that on Saturday, in large part because the defense came up with three takeaways of its own, recovering two fumbles and intercepting Brown early in the fourth quarter. 

Turnovers were a central part of the storyline from the early goings, starting with Ty Thompson’s fumble in the red zone on the third play of the second quarter. That cost HSU its only trip inside the UMHB 20-yard line in the first half, and with UMHB leading 7-0, it was a valuable opportunity lost for the visitors from Abilene. 

But just as quick as the Crusaders gained momentum from the takeaway, they found themselves on the other side of it two drives later, when the ball slipped from quarterback Kirkland Michaux’s grip as he lifted his arm to pass. UMHB was on the HSU 27-yard line at that point, knocking on the door to a two-score lead after Michaux hit Stewart for a 35-yard gain over the top of the Cowboy secondary. Instead, Matt Pascuzzi scooped up the loose ball and raced 60 yards in the other direction, tying the score at 7-7. 

That was only the appetizer. UMHB’s first three drives of the third quarter ended like this: fumble, fumble, interception. Combined with HSU’s fumble on a fourth-down carry from Noah Garcia in between, the turnovers piled up for both sides in a game that already had peak intensity. The second fumble from The Cru opened the door to HSU’s first offensive scoring drive of the day, as Pedro Altamirano ended a 52-yard drive with a 27-yard field goal that gave HSU its first lead, 10-7. 

To add to UMHB’s adversity, the very next drive ended with HSU defensive back Tate Butcher snatching away Michaux’s deep pass to Quinci Jones, snapping the Austin native’s streak of three straight games without an interception. 

Did you tell Kirkland anything to keep his confidence up?, Harmon was asked afterwards. 

“I just told him I believe in him,” Harmon said. “I said, ‘Hey, remember, failure and success don’t affect us. It can’t. You’ve just got to go onto the next one.’ That’s the great thing about having a mature kid. He hasn’t played a lot, but he’s a very mature young man and controlled his emotions, kept his belief, and did what we had to do to win.”

Michaux threw for 214 yards in the win, his fourth consecutive 200-yard passing performance. But more importantly, he epitomized Harmon’s pregame message of not dwelling on the previous play, as the graduate student went back out and commanded the offense on its final three possessions, two of which ended in touchdowns while the third burned precious time off the clock, limiting HSU’s chances at a game-winning drive. 

Once again, the defense came through on the heels of UMHB’s turnover-riddled drives, starting with Gavin Brzezinski’s interception of Brown with 14:39 in the fourth quarter. With UMHB still trailing 10-7, senior Samuel Steffe deflected Brown’s pass right into the hands of Brzezinski, who returned it 25 yards to the HSU 10-yard line. 

It took just one play for The Cru to reclaim the lead, as Asa Osbourn scored on a run to the right side. Then came another stop from the defense, as Sanders took down Brown for a third-down sack, forcing a punt. And what followed? A three-play, 57-yard drive in which Michaux dropped back and found Stewart, wide-open, running down the sideline. Michaux delivered a perfect pass and Stewart ran the final 14 yards to the end zone, a 47-yard score that pushed the Crusader lead to 21-10. 

“Football is all about bouncing back and battling through adversity,” Michaux said postgame. “You’re going to face it every game, whether it’s a turnover or a missed ball or a penalty. You’re going to have to bounce back. 

“We just had to be resilient. The whole team was resilient today. We never got discouraged when things like that happened. Our defense played lights out today. It’s hard to feel discouraged when your defense is playing like that and you know you’re going to get the ball right back.”

In the span of just 95 seconds, the defense gave them the ball twice. And from there, they capitalized, as UMHB went from trailing by 3 to leading by 11. 

HSU cut into the deficit on Christian Marshall’s 25-yard touchdown catch with 7:44 left, but that was the Cowboys’ last threat. UMHB ran the clock down to the 2:24 mark and pinned HSU at its own 3-yard line with a punt. It took the Cowboys a full 1:45 to just move to their own 25. There would be no game-winning drive from HSU. 

The first time UMHB and HSU met this fall, the Crusaders had a handful of their top performers unavailable, from Sanders on the defensive line to Michaux at quarterback. Those key contributors only got one chance to match up with the Cowboys in this 2025 regular season. And they more than made that opportunity count. 

“I didn’t feel extra pressure,” Michaux said later. “I feel like pressure only happens when you’re not prepared, and I felt really prepared for this game.” 

15 tackles for Jones

Linebacker Izeal Jones led The Cru with 15 total tackles, five of which were solo tackles, in a career-high performance for the junior. It marked the most tackles in a single game by a Crusader since Durand Hill’s 18-tackle performance against Howard Payne on Nov. 5, 2022. Jones now leads The Cru in total tackles, with 64.0.

Stewart with another 100-yard receiving day

BJ Stewart led UMHB’s receiving corps with a season-best 131 yards on nine catches, none bigger than his 47-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter. The senior crossed the 700-yard mark with Saturday’s performance and has now recorded three straight games of 95+ receiving yards. Stewart also has 10 receiving TDs, the most by a Cru WR since Brandon Jordan (14) and K.J. Miller (12) in 2022.

Another multi-turnover day from the defense

UMHB’s defense has gone on a tear in the second half of the season when it comes to takeaways, with Saturday marking The Cru’s fifth-straight game with a forced fumble and fourth-straight with an interception. Over the last four weeks, UMHB has tallied six interceptions and four fumble recoveries.