HAYS, Kan. – A 3-yard touchdown pass from Dawson Herl to Trace Willhite, followed by a clutch forced fumble from Jalen Dennis and a recovery from Coleman Booker helped lift the Missouri Southern football team over Fort Hays State, 25-24 inside Lewis Field Stadium tonight.
With the win, the Lions (3-1, 3-1 MIAA) stop an eight-game losing streak to the Tigers (1-3, 1-3 MIAA), and win for the first time in Hays since 2010. Southern also is in a four-way tie for second place in the MIAA standings.
Herl was 18-of-29 for 201 yards and a touchdown, while Nathan Glades had 24 carries for 112 yards and a score. Ezekiel Lang caught a touchdown pass from Luke Sampson for the first TD pass of Sampson’s career, while Willhite added his first collegiate touchdown reception on his only catch of the night.
Chris Boudreaux caught six passes for 78 yards, while Jaedon Stoshak had five catches for 48 yards. Dmitri Lloyd had three big catches for 43 yards.
Defensively the Lions forced seven fumbles on the night with five recoveries. Richard Jordan Jr. had a pair of forced fumbles as well as nine tackles on the night. The two forced fumbles give Jordan 11 on his career, setting a new MSSU school record, breaking Hall of Famers Ron Burton and Richard Jordan’s mark of ten.
Dennis had seven tackles with a forced fumble and a recovery, while Colton Winder had ten tackles. Solomon Garcia had five tackles, including two sacks for a loss of eight yards, while Solomona Fetuao had four tackles, a pass break up and a sack for a loss of nine yards. Zach Bergmann and Jordan Henderson had a fumble recovery each, while Booker had seven tackles, a forced fumble and a pair of recoveries.
Nick Williams had a 24-yard field goal and averaged 45.2 yards on four punts, including a long of 55 yards.
As a team, the Lions were 10-of-18 on third down chances and had 231 yards passing and 178 yards on the ground.
Southern started the scoring in the first when the Lions’ defense sacked Jack Dawson to start the drive then forced a three-and-out, setting up a punt from the 19-yard line. The punt went out of the endzone for a safety to put the Lions up 2-0 early.
After a forced fumble from Jordan and a recovery from Booker, the Lions wasted no time and Sampson hit Lang for a 30-yard passing touchdown to give Southern a 9-0 lead with 7:51 to go in the first.
The Tigers came back and got a score to get within two (9-7) and went up 14-9 with 9:47 left in the second quarter. The score was 21-9 FHSU with 8:54 to go in the first half when the Lions got a 24-yard field goal from Nick Williams to make the score 21-12 with five to go.
On the ensuing drive, the Southern defense came up big again, this time Booker forcing the fumble and Dennis recovering, to give the Lions the ball back on the FHSU 37-yard line. Glades would cap the drive with a one-yard plunge into the endzone to make the score 21-19.
A field goal as time expired in the half, gave the Tigers a 24-19 lead at the break.
The second half was all Lions. Southern held the Tigers scoreless and despite FHSU gaining 209 yards in the half, the Lions came up big and forced turnovers and held their ground when asked. After another defensive forced turnover, this time Jordan forcing and Henderson recovering, Herl hit Willhite to go up and the defensive heroics as the Tigers were driving sealed the win.
The Lions will be back in action next Saturday when Southern travels to Pittsburg State to take on the Gorillas in the 2022 Miners Bowl. Kickoff from Carnie Smith Stadium is set for 3 p.m.
