Box Score Box Score

ABILENE, Texas – What looked to be a devastating start ended up being a record-setting victory for McMurry University as the War Hawks throttled East Texas Baptist 63-31 at Wilford Moore Stadium Saturday afternoon for the team's first American Southwest Conference victory. McMurry spotted the Tigers 17 points before the War Hawks responded with 56 unanswered points.

The War Hawks broke their own ASC and school record for team passing yards as Jake Mullin, Stephen Warren and Landry Gunter combined for 617 yards through the air and five scores. Mullin had 448 yards on 28 of 46 passing, Warren threw for 167 of 7 of 11 passing and Gunter completed one pass for two yards in the rout.

McMurry also set school records for all-purpose yards by a team with 823, Stephen Warren set the NCAA-era record for most yards gained per attempt at 15.2, and the team set a school record for total offense with 753 yards gained, just five shy of the ASC record, and the team tied a school record with nine touchdowns in the game.

McMurry had three rushing touchdowns for the first time since Oct. 11, 2008 with Chris Simpson, Justin Johnson and Mullin all scoring on the ground.

On the first offensive play of the game for McMurry, Mullin threw an interception to ETBU's Addison McGee who returned it 37 yards for a touchdown. On the next possession, the Tigers blocked a McMurry punt and returned it 20 yards for a touchdown. Brett Peddicord added a 31-yard field goal with 6:26 to play in the first quarter to give the Tigers a demanding 17-0 lead.

However, the War Hawks ended ETBU's surge by scoring eight-straight touchdowns spanning from the end of the first quarter to 11:09 left in the game when the Tigers' Elias Kawesa scored on a 29-yard touchdown catch on McMurry's reserves.

Delfonte Diamond caught the first two touchdown passes of the game for McMurry from 23 and 18 yards out. Then Chris Simpson scored on a 29 yard run and Justin Johnson added a 10-yard rush for a touchdown with 5:13 left in the half. The War Hawks took a 29-17 lead into halftime.

Josh Chatman scored the longest touchdown of the day with 10:02 left in the third quarter when Mullin found him for a 59-yard score. Will Morris returned his second interception of the season for a touchdown, this time from 29 yards out to make the score 43-17 after the extra point.

Mullin scored on a 22-yard scramble and later found Simeon Neal from 36 yards out for a score to cap the run. Mullin finished with four touchdown passes and 47 yards rushing on eight carries.

Warren tossed a touchdown pass to Chris Simpson from 43 yards out with 8:39 to play for McMurry's final touchdown.

Defensively, McMurry held ETBU to only 319 yards of total offense and the Tigers had 216 of those yards in the fourth quarter against McMurry's reserves.

Morris had seven tackles (six solo), one forced fumble, a separate fumble recovery, which he returned for eight yards, the interception and a pass breakup. Kyle Wayne Kelley added six tackles and four tackles for a loss including a sack..

The War Hawks shut down Sed Harris for the second-straight year on the ground allowing just 36 yards rushing from the dual-threat quarterback. Harris had a 29-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter and finished with 167 passing yards.

McMurry moved to 2-2 on the season and holds an even 1-1 record in ASC competition while the Tigers fell to 1-3 overall and 0-2 in conference play. The win for McMurry was just the fourth all-time against ETBU in the teams' 14th meeting.

The War Hawks will look to build off the win Saturday in Brownwood when they face Howard Payne at 2 p.m. at Gordon Wood Stadium.