ABILENE, Texas — Hardin-Simmons' football team fell behind 17-7 early in the second quarter, but rolled off 42 unanswered points in a 49-17 American Southwest Conference win over East Texas Baptist on Saturday at Shelton Stadium.
The Cowboys came out and dominated the line of scrimmage after a slow start and ran for 345 yards on 47 carries. The Cowboys also had 232 yards passing and finished the day with 577 yards of offense and averaged 7.7 yards per play on their 75 snaps. HSU pounded out 33 first downs on the day.
Defensively, the Cowboys held the Tigers to 137 yards of offense in the second half and pitched a shutout after the 10:34 mark of the second quarter.
ETBU got on the board first with a Brett Peddicord 20-yard field goal with 8:03 to play in the first quarter. The Tigers made it 10-0 when Kwame Spikes hit Malcolm Wiltz for a 50-yard touchdown on a halfback pass. HSU got on the board with :04 to play in the first quarter when Derrick Grant had a 1-yard TD run to cap a 9-play, 49-yard drive.
The Tigers made it 17-7 when Sed Harris scored on an 11-yard touchdown run. After that it was all Cowboys. Justin Feaster scored on a 22-yard touchdown to cap a 4-play, 60-yard :56 drive to make it 17-14.
After a quick three-and-out by ETBU, the Cowboys took the lead when Feaster hit Daniel Lofton on a swing pass and he ran over two guys en route to a 13-yard touchdown to make it 21-17 with 6:33 to play in the first half. That play capped a 4-play, 73-yard drive in just 1:37.
In the second half, it was a steady dose of the Cowboy running game. HSU ran for 221 yards in the second half. Grant scored on runs of four and eight yards in the third quarter and ZaVious Robbins had a 21-yard touchdown catch from Feaster.
Devin Carver had a 43-yard touchdown run with 12:15 to play in the game to end the scoring.
Grant ran for a career-best 143 yards on 23 carries and he scored three times, which is also a career-best day. Feaster completed 16-of-24 passes for 203 yards and two touchdowns and He also ran for 79 yards on five carries.
Joe Sanders led the Cowboys with 11 tackles as 27 different Cowboys had a tackle in the game.
HSU is now 11-0 all-time against East Texas Baptist and HSU improved to 4-1 on the year and to 2-1 in ASC action. ETBU fell to 2-3 overall and 1-2 in league action. The Cowboys will travel to Howard Payne next weekend.