ABILENE - For all of Mary Hardin-Baylor’s blowouts of McMurry, the first 2½ quarters of this one made all the others seem like nailbiters.

In the final 22 minutes, however, the Crusaders looked less like the No. 3-ranked team in NCAA Division III and more like a squad looking ahead to next week.

That’s probably understandable because their 23rd consecutive American Southwest Conference victory was already in hand and a 24th would tighten their grip on a fourth straight conference crown.

UMHB (3-0 overall, 2-0 ASC) held McMurry (0-4, 0-2) to minus-35 yards in the first 30 minutes, jolted to a 39-0 halftime lead, then cruised to a 46-0 win Saturday night at Wilford Moore Stadium.

The latest in a long line of lopsided victories over McMurry set up next Saturday’s showdown in Belton with 12th-ranked Hardin-Simmons (4-0, 2-0) in a clash that will go a long way toward determining the conference champion. The winner of the annual UMHB-HSU rivalry game has gone on to grab at least a share of the ASC title every year since 1998.

“Everybody knows who’s next week,” Crusaders quarterback Josh Saenz said. “We came here taking it one game at a time and weren’t even thinking about Hardin-Simmons. But now that this one is over, trust me, we’re looking forward to going to work to get ready for Hardin-Simmons.”

The Crusaders went to work early in this one.

UMHB’s defense smothered McMurry and its offense took advantage of exceptional field position to score on four of its first five possessions. Then just for good measure, the Crusaders capped the first half by scoring 11 points in the final 80 seconds of the second quarter.

“We couldn’t run the football, and I think our defense played the whole first half,” McMurry coach Donny Gray said. “We just couldn’t string any first downs together because we couldn’t run the ball.”

The only surprise was that UMHB did most of its damage through the air. The Crusaders rushed for only 139 yards - their lowest regular-season output in more than a year - but got 214 yards and three touchdowns from the arm of Saenz.

“I don’t think we ran the ball like we really wanted to,” said UMHB coach Pete Fredenburg, whose squad has won eight straight against McMurry by a combined score of 432-76. “I’m a little disappointed with our run offense, but we moved the ball. We wanted to see some of our skill guys and we got a chance to do that.”

Saenz had first-half touchdown passes of 24 yards to Pi’Dadro Davis and 10 yards to Brian Scott (Cameron Yoe) before ending his night in the third quarter with an 82-yard TD hookup with Davis that capped the scoring and tied a school record for the longest pass play from scrimmage. An Orlando Garza-to-Doc Ashford pass in 1999 also covered 82 yards.

“The defense kept giving us good field position,” said Saenz, who added a 17-yard scoring run in the first quarter. “Even though the run wasn’t always there, we went to the pass and it was working for us.”

Tailback Matt Hurst had a pair of short TD scampers in the second quarter, the second of which started the Crusaders’ outburst just before halftime.

After Hurst’s 6-yard score made it 34-0 with 1:20 left in the second period, McMurry was shoved back on its next possession and forced to punt out of its end zone. Running back/punter Evan Hearn dropped the snap, which bounced over the back line for a safety with 45 seconds to go.

Bryson Tucker then returned the ensuing free kick 28 yards to the McMurry 45, and four plays later Alan Munoz kicked a 48-yard field goal as the halftime horn sounded.

“I thought we took advantage of the good field position when we got it,” Fredenburg said. “I just wish we would have run the ball better.”

UMHB’s defense - which got 2½ tackles for loss each from linebacker Eric Henri, strong safety Tucker and end Adam Aguilera - nullified any shortcomings in the rushing department by stonewalling McMurry. The host netted 6 yards on its 10 first-quarter plays and was 35 yards in the hole on 28 plays in the first half.

McMurry, which didn’t complete a pass in the final 43 minutes of the game, finished with 27 yards on 56 plays for an average of less than half a yard per snap.

“We had a hard week of practice and felt really prepared for what they were going to do,” said defensive tackle James Jenkins, who had one of UMHB’s three sacks. “It wasn’t as easy as it might have looked. It was just the result of a lot of hard work during the week.”

edrennan@temple-telegram.com