Looking back, five years later, on “The Kick” and UMHB’s dramatic 2019 win over Hardin-Simmons
Anthony Avila stood alone on the sideline, a crowd of over 5,000 in the stands surrounding him, and the opportunity for a kick of redemption becoming all the more probable.
This was a game bigger than any other UMHB had played in the 2019 season. UMHB-Hardin-Simmons carries a certain amount of weight, the kind that comes when a singular, 60-minute contest is most often the determining factor in the race for a conference title. In some years, the result decides who advances to the postseason and who is left at home. The magnitude of the moment is what both teams work all preseason for, a rivalry game at a level that none other in Texas Division III football can match.
Precious seconds were ticking off the clock as Jase Hammack and the UMHB offense pressed forward against HSU’s unrelenting, hard-nosed defense, trailing 14-12. The drive had begun with 1:17 in the fourth quarter, an opportunity for one last score before time ran out. Everything was on the line, for both The Cru and the Cowboys, as UMHB took possession at HSU’s 47-yard line.
“In a perfect world, we want to score a touchdown,” Hammack, now the quarterbacks coach at Ponder High School, recalled earlier this week. “But we wanted to try to get it to where it would at least be a 30-yard field goal for Anthony.”
The Cru was the top-ranked team in the land, touting a perfect 6-0 record and a 21-game win streak. HSU was 14th in the D3football.com Top 25, yet playing with everything that was left in the tank. Losing wasn’t an option in a rivalry game of this caliber, especially since the Cowboys had lost just two weeks prior, victims of a home upset against Texas Lutheran. A two-loss team wouldn’t earn an at-large bid to the NCAA playoffs. That was a foregone conclusion.
“It’s not a rivalry that ever needs anything additional,” said Jon Wallin, UMHB’s longtime Sports Information Director and play-by-play broadcaster that afternoon. “But when you have your back against the wall like that and you’re playing with the season on the line to have any chance at a playoff berth, that brings something to it.”
UMHB dealt with its own pressures, starting with the Crusaders’ status as the reigning national champions. Not only had they won 21 straight, but since the opening of Crusader Stadium in 2013, UMHB had not suffered a regular season home loss.
HSU’s bus rolled into Belton with every intention to change that. The game plan was highly conservative, aiming to bleed as much time off the clock as possible on offense, keeping the ball out of the hands of a UMHB offense that averaged 51 points per game. That was the formula for the upset, reliant on a calculated pace of play and a defense that had limited four of its six opponents to 10 points or fewer.
“They were going to control the ball, control the clock, and play keep away,” Wallin said.
But The Cru defense, known for its impenetrable front seven under the direction of current head coach Larry Harmon, didn’t give in easily. HSU held the ball for 35:56, over 11 minutes longer than UMHB’s 24:04. But the Cowboys punted on 10 of their 12 drives, including the final three, never able to break away.
“The UMHB defense did a really good job of keeping them from capitalizing on [the gameplan],” Wallin added. “For the most part, they did a good job of keeping them out of the end zone and keeping it close. That’s what sticks out to me, the way Hardin-Simmons dominated time of possession, but couldn’t really ever put the game away, even though they had some opportunities. That was a credit to the defensive gameplan.
“There was never any panic on the part of UMHB, even though the game was close and they trailed going into the fourth quarter the way they did.”
To read the entire feature story from True To The Cru on the dramatic conclusion to the 2019 UMHB vs Hardin-Simmons rivalry in Belton, played five seasons ago, check out the link here.
D3 News around Texas
Austin College AD Norman to retire: It seems there are few who have shaped an athletic department in as many different roles as David Norman has done over the last 35 years. The 1983 Austin College graduate, who has led ‘Roo sports as the Athletic Director since 2010, announced on Wednesday that he will retire at the end of the 2024-25 academic year is a significant announcement for AC and SCAC athletics. Six years after he graduated from Austin, where he was a four-year football letterwinner and part of the 1981 NAIA co-championship team. Norman returned to Sherman as the head baseball coach, the football program’s offensive coordinator, and an assistant professor in 1989. Five years later, he stepped into another head coaching role, this time as head football coach.
It was a position he held from 1994 to 2005 before pursuing athletc administration full-time. Norman made a brief foray back into coaching, even while serving as athletic director, when he led the women’s cross country program in its inaugural season in 2013. Through his time as AD, Norman remained influential beyond just athletics, also serving as Chair of the Kinesiology Department. He earned numerous honors from the Austin College community including the Social Sciences Division Award for Service and the Outstanding Sponsor Award for his work with Fellowship of Christian Athletes. In 2013, he received the Cindy Curtis Bean Service to Alumni Award and in 2016, was selected as the recipient of the Joe Spencer Award, an annual honor given to Austin College alumni and staff who have distinguished athletic coaching careers.
Horn heading to Canada: Trinity QB Tucker Horn, who closed his four-year career in San Antonio in 2023, has earned his next professional opportunity, and an extremely notable one at that. Horn, the 2023 Dave Campbell’s Non-FBS Offensive Player of the Year, has been signed by the Toronta Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. The CFL is considered to be the second-best professional league in the world behind the NFL, and numerous CFL players have gone on to earn NFL opportunities. A three-time SAA Offensive Player of the Year award recipient, Horn will be the third Division III alum on Toronto’s roster, joining DB Tunde Adeleke (Carleton) and DL Jake Ceresna (Cortland). He joins a QB room that currently includes Ole Miss alum Chad Kelly, CFL veteran and Georgia State alum Nick Arbuckle, and Cameron Dukes, who played collegiately at NAIA Lindsey Wilson College.
Numbers of the Week
5 straight wins over McMurry for Hardin-Simmons Volleyball, with the most recent win coming this past Tuesday, 3-1. The crosstown rivalry moved from conference play to non-conference this year with McMurry’s move to the SCAC, but the rivalry between these two institutions has continued on. The five-game win streak for HSU in the series is the Cowgirls’ longest since a six-win stretch from 2009-2011.
8 career eagles for UT Dallas golfer Daniel Shofner, a new program record for the Comets. Shofner reached the record-breaking mark at the Ryan Palmer Foundation Invitational in Amarillo earlier in the week, where he finished 44th in a stacked field that included several nationally-ranked Division II programs.
388 yards through the air for Austin College quarterback Jaylon Talton in last week’s high-scoring, 43-34 loss for the ‘Roos at Texas Lutheran. Incredibly, it was the most passing yards in a single game for an AC QB since the institution transitioned from NAIA to Division III in 1996. Talton had five touchdowns and zero interceptions in a historic showing, with a 90-yard TD pass to Michael Cress highlighting the day.
3 straight shutouts for Trinity Women’s Soccer, who tallied clean sheets against both McMurry and Concordia in SCAC play last week. Through nine matches thus far, Trinity has shut out its opponent in eight of them, ranking third in Division III in shutout percentage (.889).
Game of the Week: #13 Hardin-Simmons at #6 UMHB | Football | Saturday | 1 p.m.
It’s the biggest football rivalry in Texas D-III Football and is returning to Belton for the first time since 2021 this weekend. The last two games played between The Cru and the Cowboys in Belton have come down to the final drive, with UMHB winning both. HSU is seeking to win its first game in Belton since 2004 on Saturday, coming off a momentum-boosting win last weekend, as the Cowboys took down then-No. 12 Endicott, 35-27. UMHB is 2-0 against D-III opponents this season, with big wins over UW-Whitewater and ETBU over the last three weeks. Both squads are balanced, with efficient offenses and hard-nosed defenses, which could create an interesting outcome with the size and skill present. With the ASC playing a double round-robin schedule this season, the winner of Saturday’s game will have a leg up in the conference title race moving forwards.
Other games we’ll be keeping an eye on…
Trinity at Texas Lutheran | Men’s Soccer | Friday | 5:00 pm: Two of the best defenses in the SCAC battle for the first time this season, with TLU hoping to notch its second win of the season against a Tigers team that is 3-0 in SCAC play.
Southwestern at Trinity | Women’s Soccer | Sunday | 2:00 pm: Both teams are 2-0 in league play entering this one, and there’s a bit of upset potential with the way the Pirates have been playing as of late. Trinity’s back line is the SCAC’s best, but Southwestern certainly has a chance to earn its first win over the Tigers in San Antonio since 2005.
Austin College at Trinity | Volleyball | Saturday | 5:00 pm: Austin College has been impressive in SCAC play so far, with a perfect 5-0 league record. The ‘Roos have won 15 of their 16 sets against conference opponnets, but face their toughest opponent yet on Saturday. Trinity is 3-1 in league play, and comes off a weekend in NYC in which the Tigers took down 20th-ranked NYU, 3-1.
“I think the biggest thing is understanding football comes down to two things: fundamentals and effort. Most people don’t want to hear that. It doesn’t sound cool or exciting. But that’s what it comes down to. It’s being great fundamentally, doing the things you started doing on Day 1 and doing them exactly right through the duration of the game. And then playing with unbelievable effort. If you do those two things, you usually get good results.”
-Hardin-Simmons head coach Jesse Burleson on the keys to Saturday’s matchup at UMHB
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