Sul Ross makes the trip to Brownwood this Saturday for conference action against the Howard Payne Yellow Jackets. Kickoff is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. from Gordon Wood Stadium.


Media Information

Radio…... KVLF AM 1240
Web…….. bigbendradio.com
Watch Live…… https://hpusports.com/sidearmstats/football/summary
Live Stats…... https://hpusports.com/watch/?Live=13&type=Live


Quick Hits and Recap

• Sul Ross fell to 3-4 on the season and 3-3 in conference play after a 35-6 loss to Texas Lutheran on Saturday, October 26.
• Starting quarterback Trey Johns completed 13 of 20 passing for 127 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
• Fabian Baeza completed six of nine passing for 70 yards.
• Kadarius Page was the leading rusher with 30 yards on nine carries.
• Dre'Chon Moody led all receivers with 75 yards on six receptions
• Isaiah Villarreal reeled in the lone touchdown on a 35-yard strike from Johns. Villarreal finished the game with 55 yards on four catches.

Scouting the Yellow Jackets

• Head coach Braxton Harris enters his third season leading the Yellow Jackets. His first two years at the helm saw HPU finish with 1-9 seasons.
• The Yellow Jackets come in to this game at 2-5 on the year. They started their season 2-0 with a 48-34 opening week win against Austin College and a 56-37 win over McMurry. HPU dropped their next five with a 63-20 loss to Hardin-Simmons, 65-0 to Mary Hardin-Baylor, 27-21 against Louisiana College, 27-14 to Texas Lutheran and 41-35 against East Texas Baptist.
• The Yellow Jackets average just under 28 points per game and surrender 42 per game.
• They average 207.1 yards per game through the air and 150.1 on the ground.
• HPU allows 261.2 passing yards per game and 224.6 rushing.
• Sophomore quarterback Caleb Estes brings in a 66% completion percentage with 1202 yards, 13 touchdowns and four interceptions. He averages just over 200 yards per game.
• Sophomore running back Billy Reagins leads all rushers with 270 yards, five touchdowns, and 67.5 yards per game.
• HPU has six different rushers with over 100 yards on the ground.
• Sophomore Thomas Williams leads receivers in 379 yards, 19.95 yards per reception, a reception long of 66 yards, and 54.1 yards per game.
• Senior DunTayviun Gross leads receivers with 35 receptions and five touchdowns. He's also second in yards with 344.

Series History

• The Yellow Jackets lead the all-time series 43-21.
• The Lobos are currently on a five-game winning streak and most recently defeated HPU 28-27 in 2018.

 
Around the ASC (November 2, 2019)

Mary Hardin-Baylor at Louisiana College, 12:00 p.m.
East Texas Baptist at Southwestern, 1:00 p.m.
Belhaven at Texas Lutheran, 1:00 p.m.
McMurry at Hardin-Simmons, 1:00 p.m.


Conference Rewind

#1 Mary Hardin-Baylor 15 – #14 Hardin-Simmons 14 (Saturday, October 26)
BELTON, Texas – HSU's Jaquan Hemphill got scoring going in the second quarter on a 6-yard run for a 7-0 Cowboys lead. UMHB answered back with under two minutes left in the first half on a Jase Hammack 32-yard strike to Jonel Reed. The extra point was no good and HSU went to halftime leading 7-6. Late in the third quarter, Gatlin Martin scored on a 2-yard run for a 14-6 lead that went to the fourth quarter. Hammack connected in the air to Gary Ruckman from 30-yards out to make it a two-point game, but Hammack could not convert the two-point conversion and it was 14-12 Cowboys in the fourth. The Cru received the ball with 1:17 left and marched 21 yards on seven plays to setup Anthony Avila for the game winning 43-yard field goal as time expired. He would convert and the defending champs walked away with a thrilling 15-14 win. UMHB remains unbeaten at 7-0. HSU falls to 5-2.

Southwestern 29 – McMurry 25 (Saturday, October 26)
ABILENE, Texas – McMurry's Kameron Session provided the offense in the first quarter with 26-yard and 9-yard rushing touchdowns. Austin Castilleja of the Pirates had a rushing touchdown in the first quarter but Southwestern trailed the War Hawks 15-7 going to the second. A Dameon Dawson 59-yard interception return for a touchdown was the only scoring in the second quarter and the War Hawks held a 15-14 lead at the half. McMurry extended their slim lead to 22-14 on a 45-yard pass from Hagen Garvey to Kevin Hurley Jr. in the third quarter. Southwestern tied things up on a one-yard touchdown run by Coleman Kerr and a two-point conversion rush by J.J. Slack to make it 22-22 still in the third. Early in the fourth, Pablo Simental converted a 42-yard field goal for a 25-22 lead. The Pirates scored on their next possession when Kerr connected with Kevin Shaw for a 24-yard touchdown and eventual 29-25 win over the War Hawks. Southwestern improves to 4-3 and McMurry falls to 0-7.

East Texas Baptist 41 – Howard Payne 35 (Saturday, October 26)
MARSHALL, Texas – A Billy Reagins 5-yard touchdown run put HPU up 7-0 in the first. ETBU stormed back with 21 unanswered to take a 21-7 lead early in the second quarter. Jeremiah Robertson scored the first two touchdowns for the Tigers with a 12-yard touchdown run in the first and a 39-yard touchdown reception from Brian Baca in the second. Justin Ward then scored on a 52-yard run for the 21-7 lead. Both sides swapped touchdown runs late and it was 28-14 ETBU at the half. A Jake Parker 9-yard touchdown reception cut it to seven, but Keshoyn Alexander's seven-yard rushing touchdown brought the lead back to 14 for the Tigers. Reagins scored on a 5-yard run early in the fourth, but the Tigers answered two plays later on a Robertson 55-yard run to go up 13. Reagins scored his fourth touchdown of the game from one yard out with 3:25 left to make it a 41-35 game. ETBU was able to run the clock out and walk away with a 41-35 homecoming win. The Tigers move to 4-3 on the year. The Yellow Jackets fall to 2-5.


CONFERENCE STANDINGS
1    Mary Hardin-Baylor            7-0 (6-0 ASC)
1    Texas Lutheran                  6-1 (6-0 ASC)
3    Hardin-Simmons                5-2 (4-2 ASC)
3    East Texas Baptist             4-3 (4-2 ASC)
5    Southwestern                     4-3 (3-3 ASC)
5    Sul Ross St.                       3-4 (3-3 ASC)
7    Louisiana College              2-5 (2-4 ASC)
8    Howard Payne                   2-5 (1-5 ASC)
8    Belhaven                            1-6 (1-5 ASC)
10  McMurry                             0-7 (0-6 ASC)


Quotes from Coach John Pearce: October 29

Takeaways from 35-6 loss against Texas Lutheran
We played the second best team in the conference. I thought our effort was good. We were just a little mismatched on both sides of the ball. Their defense is probably one of the hardest defenses in this conference. They gave a lot of teams in this league fits and that was kind of our issue Saturday night. We got down 28-0 but we came back out second half and our guys didn't lay down and they kept fighting. We did put a touchdown on the board and had a chance for another one but we threw a pick down there. It just one of those growing processes when you play one of the top four teams in the conference at home. It's frustrating but it is what it is.
 
On atmosphere of the Homecoming crowd
It was a great atmosphere. It was probably the best homecoming, the best home football game I experienced here at Sul Ross in my six-year tenure. I really want to thank all the lobo nations, alpine, the city of alpine coming out to support us, obviously our alumni and our friends and family of our players. If we can get that every weekend this place would really be jumping off, we may get ESPN to come down here. It was a great experience for the kids, just unfortunately we ran into a good football team.

On differences between Howard Payne this year from previous  
They have a few older guys now. Coach Braxton is going on his third year. He's got his guys in there now. They're now juniors and a sprinkling of seniors and a lot of sophomores. They understand the system. They've been in a lot of football games this year. I know they came up on the short end of a few of them, but they played some opponents really tough. We're going to have our hands full. They usually have a pretty good crowd. Another homecoming, it's the fourth week in a row.

Winners of last five against Howard Payne (all under John Pearce) and what that streak means
Nothing. We're going for 1-0 this week. That's all that matters. We get to 1-0 and then we start looking at, I think our overall record would be back to .500 and then we try to go 1-0 next week. That's our mission. 
 
On possible quarterback change this week after appearance from Fabian Baeza
No. Trey just got rattled a little bit. He's fine and healthy. He practiced Sunday and he's ready to go today. We'll stick with our plan.
 
On ability to bounce back after losses
I think we point out our mistakes on Sunday with our team. Our guys are working to improve. They try to correct their mistakes and if they do that and keep listening and competing we'll have a chance. I think that's what's happened. I think after the Louisiana game, like I said, I told the team Saturday and Sunday that last week on Tuesday, our first practice prep day for our next opponent, we had a terrible Tuesday practice before TLU. I said that's why we played that way we played in the first half. I think that's a direct correlation. If you don't study for your math test, you're going to do poor on your math test. If you don't put the work in on Tuesday and Wednesday, you're not going to have a good day on Saturday. I know it's cliche but the proof is in the pudding. I don't care if you're playing peewee, middle school, high school, division III, division I, NFL. If you don't put the work in, this is the only sport that you practice more than you probably play and you've got to put the work in and hopefully you reap from it on Saturday. I thought last week we didn't have a good practice on Tuesday and that's why we got behind.
 
3-0 in conference on road and if there is a road warrior mentality
I guess you could say that. I don't think we really talk about it. Sometimes I think it's just us having control of those guys and what we're doing for 24 hours. We try to do a makeshift here at Sul Ross, but there is some downtime that we can't keep our thumb over the team. Maybe that has something to do with it. But you look at the four teams we've played at home. You could argue three of the four are nationally ranked teams. It is what it is.