Third-ranked UMHB found the end zone on nine of its 11 possessions but lost preseason All-American running back Quincy Daniels on its first offensive play during a 63-7 thrashing of TLU in an American Southwest Conference opener Saturday night at Tiger Field.
Daniels - a Belton product who rushed for more than 1,500 yards last year as a sophomore - burst through the middle on the Crusaders’ opening play. But as he planted his right foot to elude one Bulldogs defender near the end of his 9-yard run, free safety Dwight Bonner came crashing in.
Bonner’s hit was clean, but the force of the blow bent Daniels’ right knee in an awkward direction. The 5-9, 195-pound junior speedster immediately clutched his leg, and after being helped to the sideline he was driven to the locker room in a cart.
The preliminary report from the team’s medical staff was torn anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments, injuries that likely would sideline Daniels for at least five weeks and possibly the season.
“We’ll evaluate all of the options,” UMHB coach Pete Fredenburg said. “We’ll look to see if maybe it could be (rehabilitated) so that he could play later this season. But certainly a medical hardship is a possibility.
“Either way, it has an adverse effect on our team because he’s so well-liked and he’s such a good player.”
If it was possible to soothe UMHB’s concerns following the injury, reserve Matt Hurst attempted to do just that.
A junior transfer from Baylor who was moved from quarterback to tailback during fall camp, Hurst ran for 186 yards on just 14 carries and scored four touchdowns to tie a school single-game record.
“I knew I had to step up and play,” said Hurst, who scored on runs of 29, 9, 20 and 38 yards. “We’re a team that’s trying to go somewhere and we’ve got a long way to go this early in the season.
“Quincy’s a great player, and hopefully I’ll get more and more comfortable at running back as the season goes on.”
The Crusaders (2-0) rushed for 437 yards, ripping through the Bulldogs (1-2) with a combination of effective option plays and powerful dives up the middle.
“It wouldn’t have mattered if they’d have had my wife back there because we couldn’t tackle anybody,” TLU coach Dennis Parker said. “It didn’t matter who they put back there because we couldn’t tackle anybody they had.
“Even at the end of the game, when they had their JV in there, we couldn’t tackle them.”
UMHB entered the night having won 21 straight ASC games by an average margin of 38 points. It was evident early that the 22nd consecutive conference victory would be no different.
Making his first start, senior quarterback Josh Saenz directed touchdown drives on the Crusaders’ first four possessions as UMHB built a 28-0 lead less than halfway into the second quarter.
Saenz was 2-of-4 passing for 107 yards - including a 65-yard TD hookup with Pi’Dadro Davis in the third quarter - to go with 76 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
“We had the mindset that it doesn’t matter who we play, we treat it like a championship game,” Saenz said. “I’ve been waiting to get this first start and it felt great.”
Aerttrail Robinson returned the opening kickoff of the second half 100 yards for a touchdown, breaking the ASC record for longest kickoff return, and Luke Howard (Gatesville) added a late 5-yard TD scamper to cap UMHB’s scoring.
The Crusaders did, however, surrender an uncharacteristic 380 yards - 126 of which came on the ground, making TLU just the fourth team in the last 40 games to rush for more than 100 yards against UMHB.
“I think there was just a lack of communication at times,” said sophomore linebacker Ben Beckworth, whose seven tackles were second to Josh Goode’s 13. “We had a couple of mental errors. We might have bent but we didn’t break, so that was all right.”
The Crusaders’ occasional breakdowns on defense and their 4-of-9 passing performance were Fredenburg’s biggest concerns.
“I wished we would have passed the ball better, and I wished we wouldn’t have given up some the plays that we did on defense,” he said. “But we’ll be able to learn this and hopefully get better."
edrennan@temple-telegram.com
