Photo GalleryHOUSTON – HBU sophomore quarterback
Max Staver was 13-for-19 for a school-record 241 yards with two touchdowns and an interception as the Huskies opened the season with a 51-7 victory over NAIA Bethany College Saturday night at Husky Stadium.
Sophomore wide receiver
Brandon Taylor returned a punt 64 yards for a touchdown, the first-ever kick return for a touchdown in HBU history to close the first-half scoring, then caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Staver to open the second half. Sophomore
Ethan Fry caught four passes for 85 yards, junior
Davis Iheanacho had three catches for 47 yards, junior
Ricardo Barnett made two for 57 yards and sophomore
D'Angelo Wallace had two for 35 yards, including a 19-yard touchdown.
In addition to their 280 passing yards, the Huskies (1-0) rolled up 250 yards on the ground, led by sophomore
Terrance Peters, who carried five times for 73 yards, including a long of 50. Sophomore
B.J. Kelly carried for 35 yards, a long of 23 yards and a four-yard touchdown on HBU's second drive. Sophomore
Deion Lilly punched in a pair of touchdowns from a yard out each.
Sophomore linebacker
Garrett Dolan and senior defensive end
Josh Jones led HBU with nine tackles apiece, while sophomore linebackers
Terrell Brown and
Cody Moncure had eight each and junior linebacker
Terrance Manderville added seven. Jones and Moncure had 1.5 sacks each, while Dolan recovered a fumble forced by Jones.
Virgil Bridges completed 11-of-18 passes for 136 yards and one touchdown, while also running for 44 yards on 14 attempts for Bethany (0-1). Nile Daniel made three catches for 71 yards, with a long of 47, while Fred White caught two for 13 yards and the Swedes' lone score. Nathaniel Ocran rushed nine times for 38 yards.
Chris Washington led the Swedes with nine tackles, while Tayler Stull made eight. Roman Roberson made the only interception of the game.
After the Huskies stalled on their opening drive, a 52-yard punt by sophomore
Christian Guzman pinned the Swedes deep in their own territory. Brett Crome had his punt blocked by sophomore safety
Ari Nelson-Henton, the ball shot straight in the air and sophomore linebacker
Taylor Holmes fell on it in the endzone for a touchdown, but HBU missed the extra point to lead 6-0.
HBU took over at its own 12-yard line on its next possession, but Staver's 43-yard pass for Barnett and a 23-yard run by Kelly quickly flipped the field and set the Huskies up with a first down at Bethany's 22. Staver hit Fry for a 13-yard gain for another first down, then Kelly capped the drive with a four-yard run around the right edge.
After Taylor returned a punt 44 yards to the Bethany 10, an HBU penalty pushed the Huskies back to the 40. Peters then ran for 21 yards and Staver hit Wallace for a 19-yard strike to put HBU ahead, 20-0 with 5:08 left in the first quarter.
At the start of the second quarter, Peters ripped off a 50-yard run to give HBU first-and-goal at the 3, leading to Lilly's first score and a 27-0 lead.
Following Roberson's pick of Staver, Bridges hit Daniel for a 47-yard gain to the HBU 33, then found Nate Morales for a 27-yard gain to the HBU 4. After a sack pushed the Swedes back to the 12, Bridges threw a 12-yard touchdown to White to put Bethany on the board.
Senior kicker
Travis Shinn capped a 7-play, 68-yard drive with a 30-yard field goal to give HBU a 30-7 lead. The field goal was set up by an 18-yard run by Wallace and a 43-yard catch by Fry from Staver. With 2:20 left in the first half, Taylor returned a Crome punt 64 yards for a touchdown that sent the Huskies to halftime with a 37-7 lead.
In the third quarter, former high school teammates Staver and Taylor hooked up for a 15-yard touchdown to extend the HBU advantage to 44-7, then Lilly added the final tally with another one-yard plunge with 8:42 to go in the game.
The Huskies return to action when they host Northern Colorado (1-0) Saturday at 7 p.m. at Husky Stadium.
Head Coach Vic Shealy Postgame"Brandon (Taylor) did start off last year banged up – there are challenges when you're trying to find your role and your place in a program, but one thing I saw tonight was evidence of what an off-season program does. You saw a more powerful, dynamic athlete in Brandon. I think we saw that in our ability to cover in space, I thought we flew around and showed a lot of ability on defense and make plays that are indicative of an improved athletic abililty."
"The game played out probably how I thought it would for Max (Staver), where he would have some snaps where he would make some really impressive throws, some really good reads, some really good decisions out there and he had half a dozen checks into decisions against some blitz pressures that show the mark of a guy with a pretty good football IQ. We also knew there would be some plays where his decision-making might be behind we think it should be, but we have that on tape now so he can learn from it. I thought he had a really good first day out and I think it gives us a lot of hopes and expectations for what we have at quarterback here."
"If you looked at the off-season as whole I thought our linebacker corps was – in terms of improvement from where we were last year to where we are now – I thought athletically, confidence and game speed, it was the biggest area of improvement of our football team. They do drive a lot of the play-making that you should see on defense. I thought we flew around pretty fast in the secondary, I thought we were able to control the line of scrimmage up front. As a coach, you're never quite happy if it's not perfect, giving up a couple of big play right before the half where they get the ball in the end zone, we need to understand that big plays do present a problem on defense and we need to eliminate those things. I think the intensity and the attack mentality was very evident tonight, and I think you will see that with that fanatical effort and if we play that way and tackle well every week, we can be competitive."
