By Bradley Melchor, sports editor
After what can only be described as a sluggish start to their 2023 campaign, the reigning American Southwestern Conference (ASC) champions started conference play on the right foot with an emphatic victory over McMurry University.
The Crusaders defense and special teams set the tone early, with sophomore kicker Jack Bruner nailing a 45 yard field goal on the team's opening possession, and sophomore safety Trace Holmes killing the Warhawks first drive with an interception that set the Crusader offense up in the red zone. The Cru capitalized on this great starting field position with a 24 yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback, Isaac Phe to freshman wide receiver T.J Rone.
The Crusader defense continued to dominate in the second quarter, forcing another turnover to set up a Bruner 21 yard field goal, and recovering a fumble inside of the Warhawk 5 yard line to set up a 3 yard touchdown by senior running back Kenneth Cormier Jr. The Cru took a 20-3 lead into halftime.
The Crusader offense finally came to life in the second half, with Phe tossing another touchdown pass, this time to senior wideout Romello Cook, and Bruner putting another field goal between the uprights to put the Cru up 30-3 going into the 4th.
Senior running back, Ozias Wright added another touchdown on the ground on a 10 yard run, while senior quarterback Jackson Tingler tossed a pair of touchdown passes to junior wide receiver Matthew Jackson and and senior wide receiver Dyrius Toliver to put an exclamation mark on an emphatic 50-9 victory for UMHB.
“We set a goal to come in and be the best team in the stadium tonight, and we did that, but we certainly have room for improvement. We can clean up some of the defensive penalties and play a cleaner game. We didn’t come out the way we wanted but we saw some improvement in the third quarter” said head coach Larry Harmon in an interview following the game.
The Crusaders will enjoy an early bye week this weekend as they prepare to travel to Seguin to take on Texas Lutheran University at 1 p.m Saturday, Oct. 7.
