Story by MAYAN PAZ Photo by ANNABELLE MALSAM
Tiger Media Network
After one the most impressive wins of the Fort Hays State University football team’s season on Saturday, a 31-21 homecoming victory against Central Missouri, there is an exciting buzz around the team. FHSU (4-2, 2-2) is now preparing to face Washburn (1-4, 1-3) on Saturday evening and will try to start a winning streak and move up in the MIAA standings.
Washburn is coming off a 51-34 loss to Northwest Missouri State, but will try to surprise Fort Hays with an upset. Even though the Tigers have had a better season on paper so far, FHSU Head Coach Chris Brown knows that Washburn is no easy obstacle, especially after the team’s big win against UCM.
“We’ve got to be mature,” Brown said. “My job is to keep everybody humble and make sure we are working hard, and we need to be mature and focus on the things we need to do better.”
Against UCM, FHSU featured sophomore Caleb Heavner as the starting quarterback. He delivered 302 passing yards for two touchdowns and rushed for 97 yards and one touchdown. Senior running back Shane Watts also delivered a touchdown on the ground for the Tigers.
“It’s great that we have that double threat,” Brown said. “The offensive line worked very well, and we saw the outcome.”
Offensive lineman Dawson Reynolds also spoke about the positives of having Heavner as a quarterback.
“It’s great; we are working really well with him,” Reynolds said. “He is very mobile, so if one of us (offensive line) is getting beat, we know that we can yell Caleb’s name, and he will get us at least a few yards on foot.”
While the Tiger defense impressed last weekend in holding UCM to just 21 points – below their season average of 42.7 points – Brown still sees some places where the team can improve going forward as they prepare for Washburn.
“We played well overall but still gave up some big plays that we don’t want to give away,” Brown said. “Washburn has three really skilled wide receivers, and we have to make some adjustments on our secondary.”
FHSU’s defense has given up back-to-back games where an opposing receiver went for 200+ yards. UCO’s Terrill Davis hauled in four touchdowns on 217 yards receiving on Sept. 28, and last week, UCM’s Zach Patterson burned the Tiger secondary for 232 yards and one touchdown.
Even so, the Tigers are still confident they can go all the way this season, which starts with knocking off Washburn on Saturday.
“Yes, UCO (5-0, 4-0) are ahead of everybody right now,” Brown said. “But everyone else is with one loss, so if we win our way from now on, we can contest for the conference championship.”
FHSU and Washburn will kickoff at 7 p.m. Saturday at Lewis Field Stadium. TMN will broadcast the game on the MIAA Network and have post-game coverage on tigermedianet.com.