FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION DEPARTMENT<\/p>\n
HAYS, Kan. \u2013 Fort Hays State snapped its 11-game losing streak to Missouri Western on Saturday (Oct. 22) with a 35-27 win in Hays. The win kept the Tigers in third place in the MIAA standings at 6-2. Missouri Western dropped to 4-4 on the season. It was the first win for FHSU over MWSU since joining the MIAA in 2006 and first win overall against MWSU since 2000.<\/p>\n
The game was a back-and-forth battle early on with the teams trading the first four scores of the game. Missouri Western used a 20-yard Josh Caldwell touchdown run to take a 6-0 lead at the 11:25 mark of the first quarter, but FHSU countered at the 9:25 mark with a Jacob Mezera 41-yard touchdown pass to Kenneth Iheme. The Brandon Brown extra-point gave FHSU a 7-6 lead.<\/p>\n
The Griffons took the lead again with a touchdown just over a minute later, a 70-yard touchdown reception by Dijuan Ussery from Skyler Windmiller. For the second time, the Griffon kicker missed an extra-point and left the score at 12-7. Fort Hays State gained the lead back 14-12 with a 36-yard touchdown pass from Mezera to Layne Bieberle within the first minute of the second quarter.<\/p>\n
The Tigers broke the string of trading scores when Charles Tigner scored on a 5-yard shovel pass from Mezera with just 1:04 remaining in the first half. But the Griffons brought it back to a 2-point game on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Windmiller to Brock Broughton with just 14 seconds remaining before halftime. FHSU led 21-19 at the break.<\/p>\n
Both offenses went scoreless in the third quarter as MWSU gained 86 yards and FHSU gained just 47. The Tigers finally used a big defensive play to break the second-half stalemate as Sie Doe, Jr. tied the single season sack record at FHSU, forcing a fumble that the Tigers recovered at the Missouri Western 24-yard line. Doe had two sacks in the game and the latter set up a 24-yard touchdown run by Shaquille Cooper to push FHSU out to a 28-19 lead.<\/p>\n
Cooper did the majority of his damage on the ground late, adding a 49-yard touchdown run with 2:39 to play making it 35-19. The run gave Cooper 103 rushing yards for the game, the 10th 100-yard rushing game of his career at FHSU. He is just the fourth player in FHSU history to have 10 or more in a career. He added 13 receiving and 41 kick return yards for a team-best 157 all-purpose yards.<\/p>\n
Missouri Western added one more touchdown with 43 seconds remaining and made the two-point conversion to close within eight points, but did not recover the onside kick and FHSU ran out the clock for a 35-27 win.<\/p>\n
Mezera had his third straight 300-yard passing game, finishing 24-of-37 for 309 yards and three touchdowns. Tigner and Bieberle tied for the team high in receiving yards with 87 each, Tigner with eight catches and Bieberle with five.<\/p>\n
Alex Schmidtberger had a big day on defense with a career-high 21 tackles. Schmidtberger went past 300 tackles for his career, now with 305. He is fourth on the career tackle list in the NCAA Division II era at FHSU.<\/p>\n
Doe, Tanner Hoekman, and Justin McPhail all had 11 tackles and DeAndre James added 10. McPhail joined Doe for the team lead in sacks, each with two. Kiel Simas also added a sack to give FHSU five for the game.<\/p>\n
Windmiller finished 18-of-30 passing for the Griffons for 231 yards and three touchdowns. He had two interceptions, both to Rashad Dunnigan. Ussery finished with 106 receiving yards and Josh Caldwell, the MIAA’s leading rusher, finished with 147 yards on the ground.<\/p>\n
Next week will be a battle between second and third place teams in the MIAA. FHSU plays at No. 12 ranked Emporia State on Saturday (Oct. 29) at 2 pm. The Tigers are looking to pull even with the Hornets in the conference standings. ESU is 7-1, while FHSU is 6-2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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