ABILENE, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' fifth-ranked football team retained the Wilford Moore Trophy with a 28-0 win over crosstown rival McMurry on Saturday at Wilford Moore Stadium at McMurry.

The Cowboy defense continued its superb play with its second shutout of the season. The HSU defense allowed one or fewer offensive touchdowns to its opponents in eight of the 10 games this season.

With the win, the Cowboys improved to 9-1 on the year and 8-1 in conference play. McMurry closes its season with a 2-8 mark and 2-7 in conference play. HSU will hope to hear its name called for the NCAA playoffs on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. on NCAA.com.

This marks the third-straight nine-win regular-season for HSU. It matches the 1998-2000 teams as the only three-year stretch with nine wins in school history.

HSU jumped on the scoreboard midway through the first quarter, when freshman Marc Reed took a quarterback keeper 37 yards for a touchdown. HSU made it 14-0 midway through the second period when Woody Watson scored on a 9-yard touchdown pass from Landry Turner.

The game remained 14-0 until the fourth quarter. Freshman quarterback Peyton Killam scored on a 1-yard touchdown run. After the defense forced a fumble, Kavan Johnson capped the scoring with a  5-yard touchdown run.

The defense limited the War Hawks to 207 yards of total offense and just 55 on the ground on 34 rushing attempts.

Reed ran 16 times for 141 yards and Xavier Jones ran 12 times for 89 yards. Turner completed 18-of-24 passes for 128 yards and Matt Sandoval had eight catches for 66 yards.

Jim LaFond had seven tackles to pace the defense and he also had a pair of sacks. Eriq Mitchell had an interception in the end zone in the final minute to preserve the shutout.  

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