UMHB Football finishes regular season as ASC co-champions, Dominates Howard Payne in 65-9 win

File photo by Luke Zayas/True To The Cru

BROWNWOOD, Texas — Pursuing a share of the American Southwest Conference title, UMHB made sure it held nothing back in Saturday’s regular season finale at Howard Payne. 

Four plays into the Crusaders’ first drive, Kirkland Michaux hit Will McClintock for a 40-yard touchdown pass off a flea flicker, capping the first of four-straight scoring drives that propelled UMHB to a 27-9 halftime lead. All the while, UMHB’s defense held Blessing Ngene, the ASC’s leading rusher, to just 2.9 yards per carry, and shut out the Yellow Jackets over the final two quarters. 

Putting those two dynamics together—productive offense and relentless defense—The Cru left Gordon Wood Stadium with a dominant 65-9 victory and an ASC co-championship, sharing the title with Hardin-Simmons. HSU earned the ASC’s automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs by virtue of the conference’s head-to-head point differential tiebreaker. 

UMHB’s season draws to a close with a 7-3 overall record (5-2 vs D3 opponents) and 5-1 mark in conference play. As for the push for an at-large playoff bid, The Cru finished at No. 40 in the NCAA Power Index—the selection system that determines the 13 at-large bids—and five spots outside of the at-large bid cut line, per the NCAA’s published NPI rankings. There will be no playoff appearance for UMHB this season.

Michaux’s first-quarter touchdown pass to McClintock was the first of four scores for the graduate student at quarterback, who threw for 232 yards on 14 completions. It marked the Austin native’s fifth-straight 200-yard passing performance, and his second game this fall with at least four touchdown passes. 

On the ground, Asa Osbourn led the way early, running for 65 yards on 12 carries and a pair of touchdowns in the opening half. The senior ended the day having eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark for the third time this season, churning up 109 yards and three scores to lead a rushing attack that averaged 6.4 yards per carry against HPU’s defensive front. 

Trent Lacy, Daunte Blake, and Deuce Solomon also contributed to the ground game out of the backfield in the second half. Lacy ran for 57 yards on just seven carries and Blake added 44 yards on four carries, crossing the goal line with 12:39 left from 11 yards out. Solomon recorded his first varsity carries with five rushing attempts for 18 yards. 

The offense proved reliable all afternoon, coming away with points on 10 of the day’s 12 drives, with nine of those 10 being touchdown drives. The last time UMHB recorded at least four rushing touchdowns and at least four passing scores in the same contest? Nov. 19, 2022, when the Crusaders crossed the goal line a total of eight times in a 54-0 shutout of Huntingdon in the first round of the postseason. 

After taking a 27-9 lead through two quarters, UMHB wasted no time re-asserting its offensive success. Osbourn, who scored The Cru’s final first-half touchdown with 2:46 left in the second quarter, carried the ball for another touchdown—this one a 24-yard sprint to the end zone—on the fifth play of a 45-yard drive with 12:28 in the third quarter. 

Jack Hight capped the ensuing drive with a 33-yard field goal, leading to a momentum-building sequence for the visitors from Belton. On the kickoff return after the field goal, HPU’s Landon Kay fumbled, with the bouncing ball recovered by Blake for The Cru on the Yellow Jackets’ own 16-yard line. It took just one play for UMHB to widen its lead to 44-9, as Michaux found Osbourn out of the backfield for the senior running back’s fourth trip to the end zone on the day. 

Michaux added his fourth passing score of the game one drive later, capping a five-play, 62-yard possession with a 46-yard strike to BJ Stewart. It was the fourth-straight game in which Michaux found Stewart for a score, as Stewart closes the regular season with a team-high 11 receiving touchdowns. 

As the offense rolled up and down the field on drive after drive, the Crusader defense locked down the Yellow Jackets, ending nine of HPU’s 11 possessions with either a punt, turnover on downs, or an interception. HPU managed just 251 yards of total offense and was held below 10 points for the first time this season, a notable mark considering the Yellow Jackets came into Saturday averaging 22.3 points per game through ASC play. HPU, who had 10 first downs at halftime, moved the chains just three times over the final two quarters. 

In a fitting conclusion, UMHB freshman defensive back Avery Milligan picked off HPU quarterback Kahliq Paulette with 1:46 left, giving the Crusaders an interception for the fifth consecutive game. 

Izeal Jones finished with a team-high six tackles, five of which were solo, as he followed up on his 15-tackle performance in the 21-17 upset of Hardin-Simmons a week ago. Brandon McGruder added five solo tackles on the defensive line, with two going for a total loss of 11 yards. Gaige Sanders and Samuel Steffe each added solo tackles for loss of their own, as UMHB held the Yellow Jacket run game to a season-low 56 yards.