BELTON - When it rains it pours. And those hammering noises resonating from the Mary Hardin-Baylor campus? That’s the sound of an ark being constructed by the Crusaders football team, which is doing a remarkable job of keeping its head above water.

“You have to get ready with whomever you have, and you have to persevere,” said UMHB coach Pete Fredenburg, who has been busy filling the role of a modern-day Noah.

With the Crusaders’ list of injured players continuing to grow at a rapid pace - so much so that Fredenburg began his weekly press conference Monday with: “Here’s an update on our walking wounded. . . . ” - the coach is putting an added emphasis on this season’s motto of “Stepping Up.”

“We made that the theme at the beginning of the year because we had so many young guys that needed to blossom and become players,” Fredenburg said. “I didn’t know it was going to be quite as apropos for our season.”

The latest injuries came during third-ranked UMHB’s 35-10 win at Louisiana College on Saturday, when cornerback Brett Parker went down with an injured left shoulder and tailback Billy Abreu suffered a fractured clavicle.

While Parker is a shutdown corner and the team’s best cover guy, it’s Abreu’s injury that causes the biggest conundrum.

The sophomore out of Copperas Cove becomes the sixth ball carrier the Crusaders have lost since the start of fall camp to include Quincy Daniels (knee), Matt Hurst (shoulder), Jonathan Woods (left school), Peyton Price (knee) and Fabian Olguin (ankle).

That leaves only sophomores Roger Sanchez and Nathan Meyer, the latter of which is less than a week into his career as a running back.

“Everything runs in cycles,” UMHB head athletic trainer Billy Laxton said. “Sometimes it’s the year of the ACL or the year of the broken hand. This time it’s the year of the tailback injuries.

“Now, if it was the same injury with every running back, we would say, ‘Let’s take a look and see what we’re doing wrong.’ But it’s a variety of injuries that come from having the ball a lot and getting tackled. But still, it’s the first time I’ve seen anything like this at one particular position.”

Sanchez has carried the ball 61 times for 300 yards but lacks the breakaway speed UMHB is accustomed to at the tailback spot. In the last three games, he has only one rush of 10 yards or more, and more than half of his attempts have been for 3 yards or less.

“Roger is a very physical player,” Fredenburg said. “What we hoped at the start of the season was that he would be kind of a clean-up guy. We would do some things with Quincy and Hurst and Abreu, and then throw him in there every once in a while to pound the defense.

“To answer the question of can he be the guy down-in and down-out - he’s not what we would hope for. We would hope to have somebody who could get in the secondary and take it the distance. But he’s certainly a good, tough player, and we’re glad he’s part of this team.”

The alternative is Meyer, a linebacker before last Tuesday, whose rushing career spans nine carries - all of which came during a 107-yard performance on Saturday.

“Once Nathan gets going, he’s pretty fast,” Fredenburg said. “And he’s going to get better and better because we only had him in there a few days before Saturday’s game.”

With a stable of running backs and big-play receiver Pi’Dadro Davis (ankle) on the shelf, the Crusaders’ plan is to take it one day at a time.

“I talked with Billy Laxton a long time, and we have a timeline laid out about when we think some of these guys might be back,” Fredenburg said. “But the main goal for us is to get ready for Mississippi College. The reality of it all is that no matter who you have, those guys must prepare to beat Mississippi College.

“Then we’ll do the same next week. And hopefully along the way, guys will heal.”

Rewind

UMHB (5-0, 4-0 American Southwest Conference) will shoot for its 26th consecutive conference victory when it hosts Mississippi College (2-3, 2-1) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Tiger Field.

Last year’s meeting was the 19th win in the Crusaders’ ASC streak and a game the Choctaws had rather forget.

MC entered that game with a defense that ranked No. 4 in the country against the run, then was punctured for a conference-record 613 rushing yards during a 69-30 UMHB win.

This and that

n The Crusaders are the only ASC squad with an unbeaten conference record and, therefore, the only team in control of its postseason destiny. UMHB is searching for its fourth straight ASC title and seventh playoff appearance in the last eight years.

n Meyer became the fifth Crusader to rush for 100 yards in a game this season, joining Daniels, Hurst, Sanchez and Josh Saenz. It is the first time in the 11-year history of the program that UMHB has had a quintet of players accomplish the feat.

n UMHB’s conference winning streak dates to 2005, but the Crusaders haven’t lost an ASC home game since 2004.