MARSHALL, Texas – Back in Ornelas Stadium for their third home game of the year, the East Texas Baptist University football hosts Howard Payne University on Saturday, October 6
th, at 6:00 p.m. This will be the fifth straight night game for ETBU this year and third at Ornelas Stadium. Saturday night will also be Tackle Cancer night as ETBU will be selling pink and black t-shirts for the ETBU Cancer Fund.
These two teams have met 20 times and ETBU holds an 11-9 advantage. ETBU has taken the last three meetings by a combined score of 184-34. Prior to those three meetings, HPU won in 2014, 54-53, on a last second touchdown in Marshall and the year before in 2013, 47-36, in Brownwood. HPU started off the series in 2000 with a five-game winning streak before ETBU finally took a win in 2003, 24-21. From 2007 to 2012, ETBU took six straight meetings starting with a 20-18 win.
With a 2-2 overall record, ETBU will look to improve their American Southwest Conference record to 3-1. Taking a hard loss to #7 Hardin-Simmons on the road last week, they look to rebound at home. ETBU is 1-1 in Ornelas Stadium this year under the lights. ETBU still has one of the most high-potent offensives in the ASC and NCAA Division III averaging 39.5 points per game. They are at 474 yards of total offense with 327 yards coming in the air. ETBU's defense gives up 39 points per game and 449 yards of total offense. Although, they have produced six interceptions, eight forced fumbles, seven recovered fumbles, and 11 sacks.
The defense is led by
Garrett Gibson with 34 tackles overall.
Khamron Thomas has recorded three sacks while Zack Biles has two interceptions. Offensively,
Brian Baca has thrown for 1,245 yards and nine touchdowns averaging 311 yards per game. His top receiver is
Richard Johnson who has 373 yards receiving and four touchdowns. Johnson needs just one touchdown to break the career record for receiving touchdowns.
Tarek Beaugard has 286 yards receiving and three touchdowns while
Jauque Kuykendall has 282 yards receiving.
Jeremiah Robertson leads the team with 214 yards rushing and two touchdowns.
HPU has as 1-3 record and is 1-2 in the American Southwest Conference. They earned their first win of the year in overtime, 37-31, against McMurry in Brownwood in a five-hour game. Last week, they fell to Belhaven University in a heartbreaker, 20-19. They are averaging 18.2 points per game and 239.2 yards of total offense. Their defense is giving up 37.8 points and 483 yards of offense per game.
Kaidrion Latson leads the team with 193 yards rushing while Gage McClanahan has 716 yards of passing and seven touchdowns. DunTayviun Gross has recorded 230 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Austin Killgore has 47 tackles while Collin Wright has recorded 3.5 sacks. The defense has also posted four interceptions and two forced fumbles.
This will be head coach
Brian Mayper's first time to face a team he coached for nine years. He was at Howard Payne from 1996-2005 where he was the co-offensive coordinator, special teams coordinator, and JV coach.
The game kicks off at 6:00 p.m. and can be seen on the ETBUSportsNet on www.GoETBUTigers.com
