Mississippi College dealt No. 3-ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor its first American Southwest Conference loss since the 2005 season and now stands alone in first place in the standings, while McMurry, Hardin-Simmons and Louisiana College also nabbed conference wins during Week 7 of ASC football action on Saturday (Oct. 17).

Mississippi College (5-1, 4-0 ASC) used a 31-yard field goal by Brannon Walls with 4 seconds left to play [VIDEO CLIP BELOW WITH MC PLAY-BY-PLAY VOICE DAVID NICHOLS ON THE CALL] to secure a 17-14 win over visiting Mary Hardin-Baylor (5-1, 4-1 ASC). It was the Choctaws’ first win over UMHB since the 1998 season and also snapped a 33-game league winning streak by the four-time defending ASC champion Cru. MC’s Dustin Retherford set up the game-winning eight-play, 42-yard drive engineered by quarterback Adam Shaffer and receiver Renard Ellis by picking off a Kyle Noack pass with 1:27 remaining. Retherford, along with Quintez Ashmore (12 tackles) and Nolan Willison (two sacks), paced a Choctaw defense that shut out UMHB in the second half. Shaffer finished 18-for-40 for 194 yards and one TD to Ellis (eight catches for 137 yards). Desmond Mays ran for 115 yards on 14 carries to pace UMHB, which was penalized eight times for 95 yards.

Jake Mullin threw for 377 yards and four touchdowns to lead McMurry to a 35-28 homecoming victory over Sul Ross State. Its was McMurry’s third straight win – passing its win total from the last two years combined. McMurry’s defense, led by Josh McKinnis (12 tackles), held ASC leading rusher Dominique Carson (11 carries for 82 yards) to under 100 yards for the first time this season. McMurry (3-4, 3-2 ASC) opened up a 21-21 game at halftime with two TD passes from Mullin. John Williams had 11 tackles, an interception and a 75-yard fumble recovery returned for a score to lead SRSU (2-4, 2-2 ASC).

Hardin-Simmons churned out 471 yards of offense and held Howard Payne to negative 27 yards rushing en route to a 38-31 victory in front of a homecoming crowd. HSU (3-4, 2-1 ASC) won its second straight game after snapping a four-game losing skid. Quarterback Taylor Byrd threw for 294 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions to pace the Cowboys offense, while Wes Liles and Hank Hornsby each had two sacks to spearhead the defense. HPU (3-3, 1-3 ASC) got over 100 yards receiving and a combined three TDs from Tre Mason and Edward Cody.

Kendrick Thomas had two interceptions and Brian Jackson caught two touchdown passes to lead Louisiana College (3-3, 2-2 ASC) to a 42-28 homecoming win over East Texas Baptist (2-5, 2-3 ASC). LC snapped a three-game losing streak, while ETBU extended it’s to the same amount. Ben McLaughlin threw three TDs – all in the first half to help the Wildcats build up a 28-13 lead at halftime. Brad Wallace had 1.5 sacks and five tackles to lead the Tigers.

Texas Lutheran didn’t find the end zone until the fourth quarter and dropped a 53-18 decision on the road to NCAA Division III Incarnate Word. The Cardinals got TD passes from three different players and built up a 29-0 lead at halftime. IW’s Chaz Pavliska had two picks. TLU (0-6) got TDs from Quinnten Cleveland and Jonathon Randle, while Dantell Anderson posted 16 tackles.

All nine ASC teams are in action again next week.