ABILENE, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' football team came away with a 58-14 pummeling of Texas Lutheran on Saturday at Shelton Stadium.

The two teams came into the game at 5-1 overall and 4-1 in the American Southwest Conference and the winner had the inside track on second place in the league. The Cowboys dominated in all three phases of the game to move to 6-1 overall and 5-1 in ASC action.

Both teams started out slow offensively, but the Cowboys got on the boards when Bryson Hammonds capped an 11-play, 79-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown run with 2:20 to play in the first quarter.

Hayden Day then scored on a 33-yard pass from Ty Hooper with 5:02 left in the half after Zac Richardson intercepted a Kyle Grona pass. The Cowboy defense forced another punt and Ty Hooper hit Rae Millsap over the top for a 63-yard touchdown to make the score 21-0 with just 1:15 to play in the half.

The defense then forced another quick punt and the Cowboys drove 58 yards in three plays as Hooper hit Millsap for a 34-yard touchdown with :14 to play in the half and Jamie Pogue's PAT gave the Cowboys a 28-0 halftime lead.

HSU wasted no time in the second half as Hammonds went 77 yards on the ground on the first play from scrimmage of the second half to make it 35-0. Pogue later added a 32-yard field goal to push the lead to 38-0 and Hooper hit freshman Kevi Evans on an 86-yard touchdown to make it 44-0 with 10:54 to play.

TLU got on the board when Kedrick Ward returned a Quay Stokes interception 36 yards for a touchdown, but Evans came right back and returned the kickoff 89 yards for a score to make it 51-7.

Tim Ismail's interception set up a short field for the Cowboys and Zai Zai Smith went two yards for a touchdown to make it 58-7. TLU answered with their only offensive score of the day on a 5-yard run by Jarvis Brooks.

The Cowboys had 557 yards of offense, including 214 on the ground. TLU came into the game allowing just 60 yards per contest on the ground. The defense held the Bulldogs to 313 yards of offense.

Hooper completed 20-of-30 passes for 343 yards and four touchdowns. Hammonds ran for 176 yards on 14 carries with two touchdowns. Millsap had five catches for 134 yards and two scores and Evans had five catches for 106 yards and a touchdown.

Eric Mitchell led the defense with nine total tackles and Richardson had seven tackles, forced a fumble and had an interception.

The Cowboys will travel to Georgetown to play Southwestern next week at 1 p.m.

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