Howard Payne went on the road and pulled off an upset of nationally-ranked Mississippi College to shake up the league standings, while nationally-ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor, Louisiana College and Hardin-Simmons all recorded home victories during Week 9 of American Southwest Conference football action on Saturday (Oct. 31).

Howard Payne took advantage of seven turnovers by nationally-ranked Mississippi College and piled up 523 yards of offense to pull off a stunning 38-24 win in Clinton, Miss. HPU (4-4, 2-4 ASC) snapped MC’s five-game winning streak and dropped the Choctaws (6-2, 5-1 ASC) into a tie for first place with UMHB. Zach Hubbard was 27 of 50 passing for 453 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions to pave the way for HPU. His favorite targets were Tre Mason and Corbin Young, who each went over the century mark and hauled in two TDs. Jordan Pfenenger pulled in two of the Yellow Jackets’ five interceptions and Kevin Reyna made 12 tackles. Steven Knight rushed for 218 yards on 34 carries to lead MC, whose only lead was 3-0 early in the first quarter.

Nationally-ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor got its offense churning in the second quarter and from there rolled to a 52-10 win over East Texas Baptist in Belton, Texas. The only points of the first quarter came on a 47-yard punt return for a touchdown by UMHB’s Bryson Tucker. UMHB (7-1, 5-1 ASC) then reeled off three straight scores in the second quarter to take a commanding lead heading into halftime and eventually total 484 yards of offense. Kyle Noack threw three TD passes and Pi’Dadro Davis caught five balls for 139 yards and three scores to lead the Cru’s offense. 10 different UMHB defenders made at least a half tackle for a loss. Seth Hubbard threw for the only TD by ETBU (2-7, 2-5 ASC), which totaled just 207 yards of offense.

Jordan Rideaux caught a touchdown and returned a punt back for another to lead Louisiana College to a 26-0 win over Sul Ross State in Pineville, La. Rideaux caught eight passes for 172 yards and totaled 298 all-purpose yards. His punt return went for 70 yards. Defensively for LC (5-3, 4-2 ASC), Taylor Cottano had five tackles – two for loss – and a sack to spearhead LC’s defense that yielded just 117 yards of offense. Jamal Johnson made a game-high 11 tackles – including 3.5 for loss – and a sack to lead SRSU (2-6, 2-4 ASC).

Steven Rockwell ran for 133 yards and two touchdowns and Hank Hornsby made two sacks to guide Hardin-Simmons to a 38-22 victory over Texas Lutheran in Abilene, Texas. It was the fourth straight win for the Cowboys (5-4, 4-3 ASC) since they lost four straight. Taylor Byrd also threw two TD passes to help out HSU, which never trailed. Chris Kyle made a game-high nine tackles, recovered a fumble and registered two sacks to lead TLU (0-8, 0-6 ASC). Kyle now has at least one sack in his last four games and has totaled eight during that span.

McMurry was the only ASC team idle. Next week, all games are of the conference variety with just ETBU being idle.