Box Score
It started on a good note and ended on several good ones, but too many notes in between were sour for the Wayland Baptist football team as the Pioneers fell to McMurry University in the final home game of the season on Saturday afternoon, 56-29.
Wayland (0-9) scored the first three points of the game as well as the final 20, but the War Hawks (2-8) pretty well dominated everything in between, notching eight touchdowns and piling up 30 first downs and almost 600 yards of offense.
"The kids stayed after it and kept playing hard. They kept trying to make things happen," Wayland coach
Butch Henderson said. "We have to remember that when you play good people, you're going to get better yourself."
The Pioneers couldn't have asked for a much better start in the non-conference contest on a gorgeous afternoon at Greg Sherwood Memorial Bulldog Stadium. With Wayland kicking off to open the game,
Caleb Monroe forced a fumble on the return and the Pioneers recovered, setting up freshman quarterback
Payson Bain and the WBU offense at the War Hawk 21-yard line.
The Pioneers settled for
Jake Higgs' 33-yard field goal, and with the game just 35 seconds old, Wayland was up, 3-0.
"I thought we came out ready to play," Henderson said.
So did McMurry…at least after that initial fumble.
The War Hawks' Tyreace House returned the ensuing kickoff 63 yards to the Wayland 27, and on McMurry's third play from scrimmage quarterback Gabe Rodriguez hooked up with Clinton McCoy on an 18-yard touchdown pass.
Wayland's lead lasted all of 61 seconds, and the War Hawks were far from finished adding to theirs.
McMurry went on to score twice more in the first quarter on passes by Rodriguez before Wayland notched its lone TD of the first three quarters on a 4-yard run by
Kendall Roberson early in the second period, cutting the War Hawks' lead to 21-9.
Rodriguez matched his trio of first-quarter TD passes in the second stanza, with Greg Livingston on the receiving end of the final two. Livingston's last score was a 68-yarder that saw him shake a would-be Wayland tackler near midfield and take it to the end zone, putting McMurry up 42-9 with 38 seconds left before halftime.
The Pioneers, following a kickoff return to near midfield by
Kaleen Jones, almost came up with a touchdown in the final half-minute. Bain ran 17 yards down to the McMurry 7-yard line, and with one second on the clock the Pioneers tried to pass to
Josh Bailey, but it fell incomplete.
Henderson knew it would be tough to contain the War Hawks' high-octane offense.
"They're very talented, and we knew that going in," the coach said. "I thought our schemes were good. The coaches put us in position to be able to do some things, but (McMurry) just had some very athletic players who made it very difficult for us to stop. Putting 50 points on the board is nothing new to them."
McMurry reached 49 points thanks to its defense, which got a 25-yard interception return for a touchdown by Cory Pippen on the third play of the second half.
Another turnover by Wayland – a fumble by
Chris Acosta following a nice 47-yard kickoff return – led to the War Hawks taking a 56-9 lead early in the third. The one good thing about that is that Rodriguez went to McMurry's bench with a 47-point lead, having completed 21-of-33 passes for 372 yards and six scores.
With Rodriguez and others sidelined, McMurry's offense was a bit easier to handle, which Wayland's defense did the remainder of the game. The Pioneer offense, meanwhile, came to life and put up three fourth-quarter touchdowns – on an 8-yard run by Roberson, a 30-yard dash by Bain and an 8-yard pass from Bain to
Josh Amador.
It was a fitting score to end the game for Amador, Wayland's lone senior.
The Pioneers threatened to cut into the lead even more when
Quinton Shafer recovered a fumble at the McMurry 35-yard line. But Wayland failed to move it and turned it over on downs to the War Hawks, who ran out the clock.
"I thought the kids fought real hard. It would have been real easy to just turn loose of that," Henderson said. "Offensively, we really rallied around Payson. We had a lot of players play a lot better than they have been playing. I thought Kendall ran harder that I've seen him run."
Roberson ended with 102 yards on 24 carries, while Bain – Wayland's junior varsity quarterback seeing his first varsity action due to an onslaught of quarterback injuries – ran for 154 yards, also on 24 carries. In the air, Bain completed 13-of-38 passes for 179 yards with one TD and one pick.
"I thought we moved the ball well, which is a complement to our offensive line. They made some holes and let us get the running game going," Henderson said.
Bain took advantage of McMurry's frequent all-out blitzes, sneaking through the initial wave of rushers to find lots of daylight.
"That draw is something Payson brings to the table that really helped our linemen," said Henderson.
At other times, however, Bain wasn't so lucky. He was sacked four times and was harassed all afternoon trying to get off passes.
"Once they figured out we had a young quarterback back there, they (came after him), and did that wisely," Henderson said. "They got some stunts through early, but our offensive front adjusted."
Acosta ended with seven catches for 103 yards, matching Roberson's school-record from a year ago for receptions in a game and coming up two yards short of his teammate's yardage record.
With most of it coming after halftime, Wayland produced 25 first downs and 429 yards of offense.
On defense,
Jon-Lucas Poe ended with 15 tackles (5 solo), while
Tyler Smith and
David Hockenberry got nine stops each.
Wayland ends its season at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16 in Oklahoma against Langston University (5-4, 4-0 CSFL). The Lions knocked off No. 22 Bacone on Saturday, 39-37.
