Southwestern Assemblies of God University scored 24 unanswered points to come from behind and defeat the Howard Payne University football team 27-17 Saturday evening at Gordon Wood Stadium.
The HPU Yellow Jackets held a 17-3 lead just before halftime, but SAGU would go on to score 24 points straight to take the non-conference matchup 27-17.
The Jackets would strike first in the game when Mitchell Bailey hit a 35 yard field goal with 3:15 left in the first quarter. HPU then scored on their next possession on an Adrian Lighteard 27-yard run to make it 10-0. Lighteard finished with a game high 138 yards rushing and 2 TDs.
SAGU would then drive 54 yards in 11 plays and score on a 27-yard field goal by James Gish.
Lighteard scored again for the Jackets with 4:17 left in the first half on a 7-yard run capping an 11 play, 65 yard drive taking 5:20 off the clock. 17-3 Jackets.
SAGU would score with just 28 seconds left in the half on a 13 yard pass from Reid Golson to Dylan Moore to make it 17-10 HPU at the half.
The turning point in the game came in the in the third quarter when the Jackets were on the SAGU 4 yard line and SAGU’s Shakeem Taylor intercepted a Thomas Head pass in the endzone and took it back 100 yards for the TD. What could have been a 24-10 lead for HPU became a 17-17 game with 8:02 left in the third.
SAGU added another TD in the fourth with 10:49 left and a 41 yard field goal with 1:10 left to secure the game 27-17. Despite the score the Jackets gained 362 total yard of offense compared to 298 for SAGU.
HPU’s Thomas Head was 15 of 23 passing for 122 yards with two interceptions. Bo Ross led all tacklers with 12 (6 solo), 2.5 for loss.
SAGU’s Golson was 16 of 24 passing for 233 yards, one TD and one interception. Brad Heathcock led the Lions with 11 tackles.
The Jackets are now 0-2 overall and SAGU stands at 1-1 on the year. Howard Payne will travel to Plainview, Texas next week to take on Wayland Baptist University at 2:00 pm.
