Box Score

ABILENE, Texas – McMurry shook off a rough first half and took its first American Southwest Conference victory with a 51-19 beating of Howard Payne Saturday night at Wilford Moore Stadium. Jake Mullin passed for four touchdowns, the defense scored a touchdown, McMurry returned a field goal block for a score to aide in victory.

Howard Payne jumped out to a 13-0 lead before McMurry stormed back to outscore the Yellow Jackets 51-6 including 34 unanswered to close the game. For the fifth-straight game McMurry held an opponent under 300 yards of total offense.

Andre Dean scored on a 27-yard pass on HPU's opening possession to give the Yellow Jackets an early 7-0 lead with 11:09 left. Then, Mullin was hit in the back by HPU's Joey Lewis on pass play, and unfortunately the ball popped out of Mullin's hands forward and Demetrius Cody caught the ball on a dead sprint the other direction for a 57-yard interception return for a touchdown. Desmond Baker blocked the extra point and HPU led 13-0 just 6:05 in the game.

However, McMurry's Eric Shaffer caught a 17-yard touchdown pass, Jesse Garcia added a 36-yard field goal and Baker blocked a field-goal attempt that led to a 53-yard return for a touchdown by D.J. Baiza to give the home team a 17-13 lead.

McMurry relinquished the lead with 6:02 left in the second quarter when Cody Hambrick caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Zach Hubbard. After a failed 2-point conversion attempt, HPU led for the last time at 19-17 but went the remaining 36:02 without scoring.

Shaffer caught another touchdown pass in the second quarter and just 53 seconds later McMurry scored again after McMurry's defense stuffed a fake punt attempt, followed by Mullin hitting R.J. Long deep for a 37-yard touchdown pass. Long finished with seven catches for 169 yards and has caught a touchdown pass in each of McMurry's games.

Marcus Franklin scored the first of three McMurry second-half touchdowns on a 16-yard toss from Mullin with 10:51 left in the third. Then, true freshman Austin Brooks made the best of his first start by becoming the first McMurry running back to reach the endzone on the ground with a 1-yard scamper with 4:23 remaining in the third.

McMurry's final touchdown came with 4:18 in the fourth when McMurry pinned HPU inside the 20 with a punt by backup quarterback Stephen Warren; then, after a first down for HPU, Jacob Owen sacked Hubbard to the 9-yard line before Hubbard's second-down pass was picked off by backup safety Michael Johnson. Johnson returned the interception for a touchdown.

Mullin finished 25 of 41 for 365 yards and four touchdowns. The junior has 23 touchdown passes and just two interceptions through five games. Shaffer had six catches for 81 yards and two scores while Austin Brooks finished with 118 all-purpose yards.

Hubbard finished 27 of 54 for 253 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions. His favorite target was Tyson Swanner who had six catches for 59 yards and Joshua Wesley had four receptions and a team-high 90 yards.

Will Morris had an interception for the second-straight game, six tackles and a tackle for a loss for McMurry. The defense sacked Hubbard four times and kept HPU's rushing numbers down to 40 yards. Kevin Stewart had four tackles and three for a loss while Jimmy Terrell had eight tackles. Dylan Pritchett added McMurry's third interception. McMurry pressured Hubbard all evening and the defense was credited with 14 hurries.

Defensively for Howard Payne, Cody led with seven tackles along with his defensive score while Lewis had a monster game with five solo tackles, two forced fumbles, a sack and six quarterback hurries.

McMurry improved to 3-2 on the season and improved to 1-2 in American Southwest Conference play. HPU dropped to 2-3 overall and 1-2 in league play.

McMurry heads to Alpine Saturday afternoon to take on Sul Ross State.

Game Notes:

@font-face { font-family: "Times"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }• In the NCAA era, McMurry had only strung together two consecutive games where the defense held its opponent to under 300 yards of offense. However, in 2010, McMurry's defense has opened the year by keeping its opponents under 300 yards all five games.
• McMurry's 51 points give the team at least 50 in two games this season; the last time that happened was in the 2000 season.
• The win Saturday night was Hal Mumme's 115th career collegiate win; in his 20th season as a college head football coach, he's 115-111, and he's 2-0 against Howard Payne
• The McMurry defense held Howard Payne to its lowest offensive output of the season at 293 yards. HPU's 40 yards rushing was the lowest total by McMurry's three ASC opponents this season.
• Jake Mullin moved to second all-time on McMurry's career passing yardage chart, and it took just 14 games. Mullin has 4,700 passing yards in 14 starts and passed Kurt Ashmore for second. Ashmore played for four seasons from 1984-1987 and passed for 4,361 yards. Braxton Shaver's 8,721 yards will be in Mullin's sights next. Mullin's career yards per game average is 335.7 through 14 games; if he keeps that pace, he'll pass Shaver after the third game of his senior season.
• Senior wide receiver Marcus Franklin needs just 91 yards to move into McMurry's top 10 for career receiving yardage. At 1,381 yards through his first 15 games in a McMurry uniform, he, along with teammate R.J. Long also each have 15 career touchdown receptions. That number is good for third all-time among McMurry players in the NCAA era.
• R.J. Long caught a touchdown pass for the sixth consecutive game Saturday night. Last season, he had a touchdown reception in the season finale and has at least one touchdown catch in each of McMurry's five games in 2010. The last McMurry player to accomplish that feat was Rory Peacock who caught touchdown passes in seven consecutive games spanning from the last six games of the 1999 season to the first game of the 2000 season. Later, in the 2000 season, he also went on another 6-game streak with at least one touchdown catch. Peacock is also McMurry's career receptions, receiving yards leader and touchdown receptions leader.
• Desmond Baker's two blocked kicks Saturday night tied him with Gavan Bass for the most blocked kicks among McMurry players in the NCAA era with three. Baker also has the team lead with eight pass breakups through eight games
• Through five games, McMurry is the No. 1 defense in the ASC by an average of 141 yards. McMurry's defensive unit has allowed just 208.2 yards per game through the first five contests; HPU is next at 349.2 yards per contest.
• McMurry has scored in 18 of 19 red zone attempts this year including five against Howard Payne Saturday night.
• Baker's blocked field goal, which turned into a 53-yard touchdown return by D.J. Baiza, was the first blocked kick return for a touchdown since Oct. 21, 2006 when Joe Alexander returned a blocked punt against Sul Ross State 26 yards for a touchdown. It is the only blocked field goal returned for a touchdown in the NCAA era for McMurry.
• 132 team rushing yards for McMurry Saturday night was the second-highest total since Hal Mumme took over in 2009. McMurry ran for 143 yards against Mississippi College Sept. 19, 2009.
• Austin Brooks' 1-yard touchdown was the first rushing score by a McMurry running back in 2010 and just the second overall. Jake Mullin has the only other rushing touchdown against Texas College earlier this season.