ABILENE, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' football team saw its season come to an end with a 17-13 loss to conference foe Mary Hardin-Baylor in the second round of the NCAA Division III football playoffs on Saturday at Shelton Stadium.
 
It was the third meeting in the last seven weeks between the two teams. HSU had won the previous two meetings.  
 
"If you want to win the whole thing you are going to have to be great teams along the way." said Burleson. "As far as it being hard or unfair, that's not our attitude. Our attitude is we will play anybody, anywhere at any time and if we need to play someone three times then so be it."    
 
UMHB jumped out to an early lead when the Crusaders forced a punt on the opening drive of the game for Hardin-Simmons and Da'Marion Morris returned the punt 61 yards to set UMHB up at the HSU 3-yard line. Asa Osburn scored on the first play with a rush.
 
On the next series, Kyle Brown was sacked by Te'Ron Brown and fumbled and Dorien Hill recovered the ball. The Crusaders went 60 yards in eight plays and Jake Wright hit Jerry Day for a 26-yard touchdown pass and UMHB led 14-0 with 3:03 to play in the first quarter.
 
HSU drove the ball down to the red zone, but settled for a 30-yard field goal that was missed. The Cowboys forced a fumble on the very first play by the Crusaders when Micha Henderson punched the ball away from T.J. Rone and Jaymarcus Wilson recovered it at the UMHB 18-yard line.
 
Noah Garcia scored on an 18-yard run on the first play to cut the deficit to 14-7. That was the score at halftime.
 
On the first play of the second half, Tre Allen stepped in front of a pass and returned the ball to the 6-yard line. HSU again had to kick a field goal and Ethan Brumgard was true from 24 yards out to cut the deficit to 14-13.
 
HSU had the ball to start the fourth quarter and drove down to the UMHB 25 and had a chance to take the lead but the field goal attempt was no good.
 
The Cowboys forced a punt and had the ball with 3:33 to play with a chance to go for a winning score but ended up turning the ball over on downs at the UMHB 6-yard line.
 
The defense forced a quick field goal that Edwin Lopez converted from 29 yards out to make the score 17-13 with 1:36 to play.
 
A 17-yard sack, the seventh of the day for the Crusaders, pushed the Cowboys back and a desperation attempt on fourth down was intercepted by Durand Hill.
 
Defenses ruled the day for both teams on the day. UMHB finished the day with 204 yards of offense and the Cowboys had 200. HSU had three turnovers and the Crusaders committed two.
 
Charlie Patterson, Tray Ervin and Kaiden Roden each had 10 tackles for HSU. Hill led UMHB with 12 tackles, four tackles for loss, two sacks and an interception.
 
HSU finished the season with a record of 10-1 and Mary Hardin-Baylor improved to 7-3. UMHB will play at Linfield in the next round of the playoffs.
 
"It all comes back to me," said HSU head coach Jesse Burleson. "Any blame or lack of preparation or execution is 100 percent on me it's not on these guys. They are warriors and they battled every single day and are the best in the country in my opinion."
 
"We know they are a good team and we know we are a good team and we expect a battle every single time. We don't expect anything to be easy or smooth. Anything worth having is not going to be easy."
 
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