HOUSTON – The HCU football program officially kicked off a new era of Husky football under head coach
Braxton Harris with a resounding 66-0 season-opening victory over visiting Arkansas Baptist on Saturday evening at Husky Stadium.
The Huskies (1-0) opened the game by forcing a quick three and out and promptly drove 43 yards on four plays with a 13-yard touchdown pass from
Colby Suits to
Calvin Wiggins giving HCU a 7-0 lead just over two minutes into the game. Later in the first quarter, on a drive that started with 5:30 on the clock, Suits took a sack followed by consecutive runs of 27 yards and 11 yards by
RJ Smith moved the Huskies into the red zone. Following a penalty, Suits connected with
Karl Reynolds for a 21-yard touchdown and put HCU ahead by two touchdowns.
Just over a minute later,
Jalyx Hunt stepped in front of a pass for a pick six and the team's third touchdown of the quarter, putting HCU up by three touchdowns. The Huskies out-gained the Buffaloes (0-1), 105-37, in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Arkansas Baptist started to move the ball and made it all the way to the HCU one before a false start penalty pushed the Buffaloes back to the six. The Huskies' defense held strong brought out the field goal unit for a 14-yard try. Sophomore
Caleb King broke through and blocked the kick and cornerback
Devion Hargrove recovered to keep ABC off the board. Freshman running back
Champ Dozier tacked on two more rushing scores for the Huskies and closed the half with 63 yards and a 35-0 HCU lead.
Dozier then opened the scoring in the third quarter with a 23-yard scamper for his third touchdown of the night. The Huskies added touchdown rushes by
Jesse Valenzuela and
Darryle Evans, a touchdown pass from
Justin Fomby to
AJ Wilson and a 32-yard field goal by
Dillon Fedor the rest of the way.
In his collegiate debut, Dozier rushed 11 times for 97 yards and three touchdowns. Junior
Jesse Valenzuela averaged 20.7 yards per carry with 62 yards on three rushes while
RJ Smith carried the ball 12 times for 60 yards.
Suits, in his first start for the Huskies, completed 7-of-11 passes for 139 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Junior
Justin Fomby was a perfect 9-of-9 throwing the ball in relief of Suits, connecting for one touchdown and 93 yards through the air.
The Huskies had 10 different players record receptions with nobody catching more than three passes. Wilson led the team with 66 yards on three catches while Reynolds finished with 55 yards on two receptions. Senior
Aaron Sotelo had a pair of catches for 46 yards with a game-high 40 yards after the catch.
Defensively, preseason all-American linebacker
Rodney Dansby led all players with 10 tackles while
Xavier McIntyre and
Zae Smith each added eight tackles. Fellow linebacker
Josh Ferguson totaled seven tackles, with three and a half tackles for loss, and a sack.
HCU finished the night with 473 yards of total offense and limited Arkansas Baptist to just 132. The Huskies put up 241 yards on the ground, averaging 6.7 yards per carry, and added 232 yards through the air, completing 16-of-20 attempts.
The Huskies' 66 points is the third-highest single-game point total in program history and the highest by an HCU team since the 2019 season in a 68-31 victory over Texas Southern.
HCU heads to Bowling Green, Ky. next Saturday for a matchup with Conference USA member Western Kentucky at Houchens-Smith Stadium with a 6:00 p.m. kickoff.
