Southwestern quarterback Braden Howell threw for three touchdowns, ran for two more and Southwestern took advantage of Kansas Wesleyan’s mistakes enroute to a 44-14 Kansas Conference victory Saturday night at JRI Stadium and the Graves Family Sports Complex.
KWU fell to 1-2 with the loss while Southwestern improved to 3-0 and won the Bishop’s Cup for the fifth consecutive year.
Southwestern led 17-7 at halftime and pulled away in the second half, outscoring the Coyotes 27-7. The Moundbuilders finished with 436 total yards (236 passing, 200 rushing) on 74 plays while KWU 228 yards (120 rushing, 108 passing) on 49 plays.
“It’s embarrassing, I’m embarrassed for sure when we get beat like this,” KWU coach Matt Myers said on his postgame radio show. “We kind of unraveled, we need to look in the mirror and get better. That’s the only thing we can do, just go back to practice this week and get better.”
Trailing 10-0 early in the second quarter the Coyotes scored quickly following Zarek Fewell’s 54-yard kickoff return. KWU drove 45 yards on four plays, Luke Armstrong scoring from the 6-yard line with 11:47 left in the half.
Disaster arrived soon after, though. A bad snap from center sailed over punter Griffin Wiltse’s head to the goal line. Wiltse retrieved it but his desperation kick went out of bounds at the KWU 14 and Southwestern scored five plays later for a 17-7 lead with 6:17 left in the half.
The Coyotes drove to the Southwestern 20-yard line on their first drive of the second half, but Armstrong fumbled after a six-yard gain and the Moundbuilders recovered at the 9.
A short Wiltse punt on KWU’s next possession gave Southwestern the ball at the Coyotes’ 39 and the Moundbuilders scored four plays later on Christian Steward’s 14-yard run making it 24-7 with 5:02 left in the third quarter.
Armstrong broke loose for a 21-yard run on Wesleyan’s next drive but fumbled at the Southwestern 27 and the Moundbuilders recovered at the 31. They scored 10 plays later Howell’s 24-yard pass to Jaydon Sundgren increasing the lead to 31-17 with 12:10 left in the game.
A miscommunication on the ensuing kickoff allowed Southwestern to pounce on the loose ball at the KWU 18-yard line. Howell threw a touchdown pass to Matthew Holthusen on the first play from scrimmage making it 37-7 with 12:04 left.
KWU was forced to punt on its next possession and Howell hit Holthusen with a 59-yard touchdown pass on the first play with 10:24 left for the Moundbuilders’ final points.
The Coyotes scored their second touchdown on Junior Akintunde’s 1-yard run with 3:54 remaining. It capped a 58-yard drive that consisted of 11 running plays and one pass – Richard Lara’s 16-yard strike to Alexander Elam to the 2-yard line.
Armstrong led the offense with 67 yards rushing on 10 carries (6.7 yards per carry). Starting quarterback Byron McNair was 4 of 11 passing for 86 yards before exiting with an injury in the third quarter. Lara was 2 of 3 for 22 yards.
“We need to be able to rely on the run game and make sure that we win the ground game,” Myers said, “but we have to be better in the pass game too. We’ve got to be able to throw the ball down the field and protect and that wasn’t quite there tonight.”
Howell, a senior, was 18 of 26 for 213 yards and the three TDs. J.B. Burnett had 114 yards rushing on 21 carries and Holthusen six receptions for 114 yards.
“They got 436 yards on 74 plays – they weren’t killing us with big plays until late,” Myers said. “We can’t be out there getting the life sucked out of us for too many of those drives.”
The Coyotes play No. 21-ranked Friends at 6 p.m. next Saturday at Adair-Austin Stadium in Wichita. The Falcons (3-0) defeated Avila 56-10 Saturday in Kansas City, Missouri.
“We’re in the same spot we were last season,” Myers said. “We’ve just got to go and win all of our games; we need to play with absolute selfless abandoned. We have time to do it, we just need to turn everything around and get it going the right direction.”
