The Howard Payne Yellow Jackets football team scored 25 second-quarter points, led 32-3 at the half, and rolled to a 39-17 American Southwest Conference victory over Texas Lutheran.
Saturday at Brownwood’s Gordon Wood Stadium, Howard Payne intercepted two TLU passes and blocked a punt in the first half. HPU quarterback Zach Hubbard missed only one throw in the first half, going 12-for-13 for 222 yards and two TDs.
Hubbard hit Cody Hambrick for a 26-yard scoring strike on the final play of the first half. Hambrick caught four passes for 110 yards in the first half alone. He finished the day with seven catches for 149 yards and two TDs. Hambrick caught a 29-yard scoring strike from Hubbard in the third quarter.
Hubbard finished the day 24-for-37 with three touchdowns and one interception. He threw for 341 yards. Hambrick finished with seven catches for 149 yards and two TDs.
The interception thrown by Hubbard was returned 35 yards for a touchdown by TLU freshman Donald Morgan in the fourth quarter.
Brandon Young posted a pair of rushing TDs in the first half for the Yellow Jackets.
TLU’s only score of the first half came on a 34-yard field goal by Allen Cain with 27 seconds to play in the half.
After Cain’s field goal, HPU went 71 yards in two plays for the last-second score in the second quarter.
Hubbard’s other TD pass, a 10-yard completion to Jeremy Masterson, came after TLU’s Mitchell Bunger tossed an interception to HPU’s Germaine Gilbert. Following the pick, the Masterson TD grab capped a four-play drive that covered only 25 yards.
The HPU defense put points on the board all by itself with a Gavin Middleton interception return for a touchdown at the 8:14 mark of the second quarter. Middleton picked off Bunger and took it 35 yards to the endzone.
Dustin McClure led all tacklers with 12 and Joey Lewis and Demetrius Cody had a sack each for the Jackets.
TLU dropped to 1-2 overall and to 1-1 in the ASC. Howard Payne improved to 2-2 overall and to 1-1 in the ASC.
