ST. LOUIS, Mo. – As with any team participating in their first regular season game of the season, the Missouri Baptist University Spartans had more questions than answers as they took the field for the first time against William Penn University on Saturday afternoon. Many of those answers, especially about the offense, will need to wait another week for clarity as the Spartans fell to the Statesmen 6-2 at Spartan Field. Yes…that is a football score.
The Spartans defense held WPU to 296 yards of total offense and just a single field goal in each half. The offense on the other hand was not able to hold up their end of the bargain.
Making his Spartans debut, quarterback
Jordan Simpson struggled mightily with getting in sync with his receivers. The junior from Norwalk, Calif. finished the day with 12 completions on 34 attempts, with 100 passing yards and three interceptions.
Darius Morrison had 18 carries for 72 yards with his longest rush coming on the Spartans second play of the day when he gashed the Statesmen defense for a 21-yard gain. He wouldn't have a gain of more than five yards on a play again until well into the fourth quarter, as WPU adjusted to sure things up.
The Statesmen took the opening kickoff and ate almost nine minutes off the clock before Ethan Olivas connected from 29 yards away to give WPU an early lead.
MBU had a golden opportunity to take the lead toward the end of the first quarter when they engineered a nine play 64-yard drive and had the ball first and goal at the Statesmen six-yard line. However, on the first play of the second quarter, WPU's Howard Huerta stepped in front of a Simpson pass at the two yard-line and returned the interception to the Statesmen 31. It was huge momentum shift in the game.
Late in the first half, Simpson would be intercepted again, this time at the Statesmen 36-yard line. The Spartans defense was able to force a turnover on fourth down when defensive tackle
Anthony Graham forced a fumble that was recovered at the WPU 40-yard line with 17 ticks remaining on the clock. But two Simpson incompletions and a quarterback sack allowed time to expire and the Statesmen to hang on to a 3-0 lead to halftime.
Early in the second half the MBU defense came up big again. Following a Spartans offensive three-and-out to start the half, the Statesmen put together a 76-yard drive to have first and goal from the Spartans two-yard line. The Spartans defense pushed them back a yard on three rushing plays and broke up a fourth down pass when the Statesmen elected to go for it from the three-yard line.
On the ensuing drive the Spartans managed only eight yards on three plays and punted back to WPU, who took over on the MBU 48. Nine plays and 41 yards later, Olivas connected on this second field goal of the game, this one from 23 yards. WPU lead 6-0 midway through the third quarter.
Spartans' cornerback
Caleb Ford gave his team a spark early in the fourth quarter when he intercepted the Statesmen signal-caller at the WPU 43-yard line. However, six plays later, Huerta got his second interception of the day, and the third thrown by Simpson, at the Statesmen 25-yard line. That's as close as the MBU offense would get to the endzone for the remainder of the day.
The MBU points came by way of a bad snap that sailed over the punter for WPU and out of the endzone. The Spartans were within a 6-2 score with 7:12 left but they could climb no closer.
The Spartans offense finished the day three of 15 on third down conversions and suffered from 39:06 to 20:54 deficit in time of possession. WPU outgained MBU 262 to 192 on offense.
Next up for the Spartans is Grand View University, next Saturday at Noon in Des Moines, Iowa. The Vikings are the third-ranked team in the country according to the NAIA Football Coaches Poll.
