ABILENE, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' football team started the unchartered part of its round-robin American Southwest Conference schedule with a 44-17 win over Howard Payne on Friday night at Shelton Stadium.
 
The Cowboys, who are playing their ASC opponents twice each, found themselves in a battle heading into the fourth quarter with a 17-10 lead. HSU outscored the Yellow Jackets 27-7 in the final quarter to pull away.
 
HSU moved to 8-0 on the season for just the fourth time in its Division III history, which dates back to 1997. It was also the 18^th straight win over Howard Payne, the 12^th straight win at home and the 17^th consecutive win in ASC play.
 
Both teams had to punt on their opening possessions of the game, and then the Cowboys went 53 yards in 11 plays with Colton Marshall scoring on an 8-yard touchdown pass from Kyle Brown.
 
HSU forced another punt that went only 12 yards and then went down and Grayson Bearden hit a 30-yard field goal to make it 10-0 with 1:59 to play in the first quarter.
 
Osvaldo Gomez answered with a 39-yard field goal for HPU. Marshall scored on a sneak on fourth-and-goal to give the Cowboys a 17-3 lead with 2:41 to play in the half. HPU came right back and Zy Gravitt hit Klyderion Campbell on an 8-yard touchdown pass over the middle.
 
Neither team scored in the third quarter.
 
With HSU's top two running backs Noah Garcia and Marshall out of the game with injuries freshman Braylon Henry had a huge fourth quarter. He ran the ball 14 times for 73 yards and scored three touchdowns in the final frame. He scored on a pair of 1-yard runs and a 5-yard tote.
 
Gus Charles scored on a 70-yard pass from Gravitt and Dozie Ifeadi scored on a 26-yard strike from Brown in the fourth quarter.
Brown was 13-of-26 for 177 yards and two touchdowns and Gravitt was 16-of-31 for 203 yards and two scores.
 
Henry finished the game with 114 yards on the ground, his second 100-yard rushing effort of the season. Garcia had 104 yards on 19 carries.
 
The Cowboy defense had six sacks on the day with LeBron Tah recording a solo and two assisted sacks. Tray Irvin and Tre Allen had interceptions for the Cowboys. Kaiden Roden led the way with eight total tackles.
 
HSU is 8-0 overall and 4-0 in conference play. HPU fell to 1-6 overall and 0-4 in league play. If Mary Hardin-Baylor wins against East Texas Baptist on Saturday, HSU could clinch the outright league title with a win over UMHB next week when the Cowboys host the Crusaders at 1 p.m. at Shelton Stadium.
 
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