Box Score ABILENE, Texas — Willamette University had been known for its fly offense, but with a new coach and a new quarterback the Bearcats opened up the attack and rolled up 727 yards in a 58-34 win over Hardin-Simmons in the season opener on Saturday night at Shelton Stadium.
The 727 yards and 58 points allowed were the most given up by a Hardin-Simmons team in the non-scholarship era.
Josh Dean was impressive for the Bearcats as he completed 31-of-47 passes for 468 yards and six touchdowns. He opened the scoring in the first quarter when he hit Jake Turner on a 26-yard touchdown pass to cap a 10-play, 82-yard drive on the opening possession.
Willamette made it 14-0 in the second quarter when Dylan Jones got free on a screen pass for 63 yards and a score, but the Cowboys Jessie Ramos returned the ensuing kick 96 yards for a touchdown to make it 14-6 after Scott Newberry's PAT was blocked.
On the next series, Jonathan Petty picked off Dean and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown to make it 14-13. The Bearcats then scored on a 7-yard Jones run with 4:15 to play in the half and then Devin Carver fumbled for the Cowboys putting the Bearcats right back in scoring territory and Dean hit Mike Hernandez on a 5-yard touchdown pass with :26 to play in the first half to make it 28-13.
Willamette scored on two possessions early in the third quarter. Dean hit Benny Weischedel on a 37-yard touchdown pass and then hit Jake Knecht on an 11-yard score to make it 41-13.
That is when the Cowboy offense, which had struggled up to that point, came to life. HSU went 73 yards in five plays and Tevin Mitchell capped the drive with a 3-yard touchdown run. Tyler Tennerson then intercepted a shovel pass and HSU scored two plays later on a Mitchell 5-yard run to cut the deficit to 41-27.
Kyle Derby capped a 61-yard drive with a 27-yard field goal to make the score 44-27 with :21 to play in the third quarter.
HSU quarterback Logan Turner then hit Trei Lewis on a 40-yard touchdown pass on fourth down and Willamette fumbled on the ensuing possession at their own 25 and the Cowboys only trailing by 10 looked to be back in the game.
However Mitchell fumbled the first play of the HSU possession. Willamette went 86 yards in nine plays and Dean hit Turner for a 23-yard touchdown to make it 51-34. Terrell Malley scored on a 45-yard touchdown run with 5:54 to play to setup the final score.
Turner was 21-for-36 with four interceptions and was sacked four times in his starting debut. Mitchell had 18 rushes for 94 yards and two touchdowns. Corey Jones had five catches for 89 yards.
The Cowboys did set a school record with 307 yards of kickoff returns. Ramos had five returns for 199 yards.
Freshman free safety James Place led the Cowboys with 11 tackles, Brandon Phillips had 10 tackles a forced fumble and two pass break ups and Undra Hendrix had a pair of sacks for HSU. Cody Pastorino led Willamette with seven tackles (2.5 for loss) and an interception.
The Cowboys are now 0-1 and will play at Linfield next Saturday.
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