Unfortunately for the visitors from south of the border, UMHB’s starters and reserves were on the field about half the night.
Senior quarterback Josh Saenz rushed for one touchdown and threw for another, and sophomore Kyle Noack threw a pair of TD passes to help lift the Crusaders to an unofficial 41-35 victory over the Pumas on Thursday night at Tiger Field.
To comply with NCAA rules, the score could not officially be kept for the scrimmage, which featured four full quarters of game action. But make no doubt about it - both squads knew the final tally.
“We knew we were behind by one point in the final minutes,” UMHB coach Pete Fredenburg said. “That just shows you how fragile this game is. If guys go out on the field and don’t perform, it can get away from you. That’s what it did in the third quarter.”
After the Pumas outscored the Crusaders third-, fourth- and fifth-string players 14-3 in the third quarter to take a 28-27 advantage, Saenz’s short TD pass to Marcos Garcia put UMHB up 34-28 early in the fourth.
Mexico answered with a goal-line stand about 10 minutes later, then regained the lead on a long scoring pass from Francisco Javier Alonso to Octavio Baltazar Zapata with 1:34 remaining.
But UMHB had the final word when Noack hit Pi’Dadro Davis on a post route in the end zone with 1:06 to go.
Saenz, who scrambled for a first-quarter score, and Noack - whose second-quarter fade pass to Ervin Johnson gave UMHB a 14-0 lead - are the front-runners for quarterback’s job.
Athletic senior Rashon Lewis, who had transferred from McMurry and was playing for his fourth school, no longer is with the program after a falling out on Wednesday.
“Rashon Lewis is not a part of this team and did not want to be a part of this team,” Fredenburg said.
Matt Hurst, a junior transfer from Baylor, directed a scoring drive late in the first half. The march was capped by a screen pass to speedy freshman Tariekus Ellis, who turned the short toss into a 40-yard touchdown.
The Crusaders, who scored the remainder of their points on field goals, executed their offense out of the shotgun the majority of the night - a drastic change from the I-formation that made UMHB the most potent rushing team in Division III the last four years.
Use of the shotgun formation, however, might be tempered once the games start counting.
“We’re probably going to be in the shotgun some, but not this much,” Fredenburg said. “I still think that we’re so powerful running the ball out of the I-formation.”
The Pumas were at their most dangerous in the third quarter, when they got a TD run from Fernando Banda and an 82-yard punt return for a score from Jonathan Alejandro Barrera.
“We knew that (UMHB) was one of the best teams in its division. That’s why we decided to play against them,” Pumas coach Raul Rivera said through a translator. “We’re getting ready to be champions in Mexico.
“This is important for us because it has been 30 years since this football team has been to the United States for a game. Now we are going to enjoy ourselves and go to downtown San Antonio and see the Alamo.”
NOTES: UMHB will have an intrasquad scrimmage next Thursday before opening the season Sept. 13 at home against Southern Nazarene (Okla.). . . . The Crusaders’ defense was without a pair of starting linebackers. Senior Eric Henri, the American Southwest Conference preseason defensive player of the year, and junior John Hamilton (Temple) were held out for precautionary reasons.
