Box Score Box Score

BROWNWOOD, Texas – The train took a bit to get going, but once the McMurry University offense was on track, there was no stopping it. The War Hawks were scoreless in the first quarter, but went on to compile 600 yards of offense in a 50-3 victory Saturday at Gordon Wood Stadium over Howard Payne.
 
McMurry's defense also set a school record by not allowing a passing yard, and the Yellow Jackets could only muster up 130 yards of total offense. Justin Johnson carried the ball 15 times for 127 yards and two scores while catching two passes for 90 yards and a score for McMurry.
 
Jake Mullin went over the 400-yard mark passing for the second-straight week and completed 34 of 42 passes for 430 yards and four touchdowns in the victory. McMurry improved to 3-2 overall and 2-1 in American Southwest Conference play while Howard Payne fell to 1-4 and 1-2 respectively.
 
Saturday marked the third time in school history that a McMurry defensive unit had held an opponent to zero yards passing. The last occurrence came Sept. 14, 1991 against Sul Ross State. The Yellow Jackets' attempted just six passes without a completion and McMurry's Will Morris intercepted his third pass of the season, and 10^th of his career, the day after he became a father for the first time.
 
Morris drove in from Katy Saturday morning to Brownwood, picked off a second-quarter pass, recorded two solo tackles and immediately returned to Katy following the game to be with his wife Keaton and new son Ashton William Morris born Friday afternoon.
 
Johnson averaged 8.5 yards per carry and 45 yards per reception and scored three touchdowns. He opened the game with a 53-yard run on McMurry's first offensive play. He scored with 46 seconds left in the half on a two-yard run, score in the third quarter on a five-yard run, and caught a 73-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter.
 
Mullin threw two interceptions but completed a career-high 81 percent of his passes, which set a single-game school record. The previous record was held by Braxton Shaver who completed 13 of 17 passes against Southwestern Assemblies of God Sept. 27, 1997.
 
R.J. Long had his best game of the season with 10 receptions, 153 yards receiving and two touchdowns. Eric Shaffer caught 10 passes for 59 yards and Greg Freeman had four receptions for 76 yards. Chris Simpson and Ricky Gillespie also had touchdown catches with backup quarterback Stephen Warren finding Gillespie for a 31-yard score late in the game.
 
Long caught his 25^th and 26^th career touchdown passes to move him to second all-time for career scoring receptions behind Rory Peacock's 40.
 
HPU's Adrian Lighteard had 95 yards on 14 carries while quarterback Rick Henderson and runningback Jared Shaw had just 35 yards on the ground on 24 carries combined. Mitchell Bailey hit a 29-yard field goal in the third quarter for the YellowJackets' only score of the contest.
 
The War Hawks defense tallied 16 tackles for a loss, which tied an NCAA-era (1996-pres.) record for McMurry's defense. McMurry tallied 16 tackles for a loss against East Texas Baptist Oct. 6, 2007 and against Austin College Sept. 17, 2005. Chris Williams had six tackles to lead McMurry while Corey Hall had five tackles, two tackles for a loss, a forced fumble and a blocked punt.
 
Mullin has now passed for 7,225 yards in 22 games at quarterback for McMurry, and combined with Warren Saturday, McMurry posted the third-highest passing yardage total for the school as a team since 1996 with 484.
 
McMurry's 600 yards of total offense marks the first time in school history that the program has recorded back-to-back games with 600 or more yards of total offense after last week's 753-yard effort against East Texas Baptist.
 
The War Hawks return home to play host to Sul Ross State Saturday at 2 p.m. for Homecoming at Wilford Moore Stadium.