Box Score BELTON, Texas – Finishing up the 2015 regular season with seven wins, the #23 East Texas Baptist University football team didn't have enough offensive fire power to keep up with #13 Mary Hardin-Baylor (9-1/4-1) as they received their first American Southwest Conference loss of the year, 67-20. ETBU finishes ASC play as tri-champions with UMHB and Hardin-Simmons University and is their second overall championship in the history of the program.
Tyler Bates broke Stephen Alfred's program record for yards receiving in a season of 1,210 yards finishing with 1,251 yards. He finished the day with 179 yards receiving on 15 receptions. Overall, he had 11 touchdowns on the year which was one short of the single season record of 12 set last year by Alfred.
Kendall Roberson rushed for 86 yards and two touchdowns and finishes the season with 1,626 yards rushing. The 1,626 yards rushing was just 52 yards shy of breaking the single season record of 1,677 yards set by RoShawn Johnson in 2003. The 24 rushing touchdowns is a program record and leads all of NCAA Division III.
Josh Warbington went 28-of-41 for 258 yards and one touchdown on the day. He finishes the year with 2,180 yards passing and 17 touchdowns and has rewritten the ETBU game, single season, and career record book for passing in three years as a starter.
Defensively, Xavier Davis and Garrett Gibson led the team with nine tackles as each had six solo. Sam Williams recorded two interceptions and finishes the year with four overall.
It was the first quarter that was the turning point for ETBU. UMHB took a 7-0 lead on their first possession but ETBU's special teams gave them the ball back forcing a fumble on the next possession. Warbington punted the ball to the UMHB 37-yard line where Derek Ledet forced a fumble and Xavier Gray recovered it at the 13-yard line. Two plays later Roberson rumbled in to make it 7-6. ETBU missed the extra point and trailed by just one point.
UMHB made it 14-6 on the ensuing possession and then ETBU drove down to the Crusader 20-yardline with just under eight minutes to go in the first quarter. The UMHB defense forced ETBU to turn the ball over on downs and the scored four plays later making it 20-6. ETBU fought back and took their next drive to the UMHB 42-yard line but had the punt blocked on 4th-and-22 giving the ball back to the Crusaders at midfield. On the fourth play of the UMHB drive, Williams took in his third interception of the year at the goal line stopping a UMHB score. ETBU took over at the 20-yard line but the offense couldn't figure out UMHB's defense the rest of the way starting in the second quarter. UMHB shutout ETBU in the second and third quarters extending their lead to 60-6. ETBU found the end zone twice in the fourth quarter on a two-yard Roberson rush and a 15-yard pass to Richard Johnson.
ETBU finished the day with 307 yards of total offense as 258 came in the air. UMHB had 644 yards of offense as 439 yards were passing and two receivers had over 100 yards receiving.
ETBU ends the regular season at 7-3 and 4-1 in the ASC. They have a very slim chance of making the NCAA playoffs as they were 10th in the region coming into this week. Both Hardin-Simmons and UMHB were ranked 2nd and 3rd in the region.
