Despite being competitive in all but their first-ever meeting, coach Pete Fredenburg’s Crusaders didn’t defeat Jimmie Keeling’s Cowboys until their fifth attempt, a 35-16 win in Belton in 2002.
Now, however, it’s strange to think UMHB ever struggled against Hardin-Simmons, its traditional rival.
Times have changed and the tables certainly have turned - the Crusaders don’t lose to the Cowboys in Belton or in Abilene, in the regular season or in NCAA Division III playoffs, in close games or in romps.
Fourth-ranked UMHB strengthened its grip on the series’ upper hand Saturday at Tiger Field, edging No. 7 HSU 38-35 on Alan Munoz’s 33-yard field goal with five seconds left for the Crusaders’ seventh consecutive win over the Cowboys and ninth victory in their last 10 clashes.
Clipping Hardin-Simmons (9-2) for the second time this season by a combined five points, UMHB (10-1) moved to 6-0 against the Cowboys in the last four seasons and knocked them out of the playoffs for the third time in five years.
“It feels great to complete a career sweep of Hardin-Simmons, and this Hardin-Simmons team is one of the best that I’ve ever played against,” said senior free safety and Temple graduate Derrick Williams, who had 13 tackles and an interception to set up UMHB’s final touchdown.
“But it feels awesome to never have lost to them. I’ll never forget this.”
Hardin-Simmons won’t, either.
A 20-18 loss in Belton back on Oct. 4 kept the Cowboys from prying the ASC title away from UMHB (which has won the conference four straight years), and the three-point loss in Saturday’s classic denied HSU its first playoff victory since its trip to the Division III semifinals in 2000.
Keeling, who’s 158-47 in 19 years at HSU, opened his program up for Fredenburg to study after UMHB started its football program in 1997, a year before the Crusaders’ inaugural season.
Needless to say, Fredenburg learned a lot about building a winning program from Keeling - who clearly doesn’t like losing to UMHB but also doesn’t seem bitter about the success the Crusaders have had, especially against HSU.
“We don’t feel good about them winning today, but we sure respect what they’ve done. I don’t think there are many Division III teams better than either one of us,” said Keeling, whose team’s last win over UMHB was a 49-22 road victory in 2004 - though the Crusaders avenged it with a 42-28 second-round playoff win in Abilene en route to their Stagg Bowl appearance.
“They’ve done a great job in every way. They’ve recruited well. They coach well. They play hard. Pete Fredenburg and I are very close friends except for a couple days a year. I have a lot of respect for them and their team.”
The same goes for Cowboys junior quarterback Justin Feaster, who feasted on the Crusader defense for 306 yards and four touchdowns on 26-of-36 passing but also was sacked three times and picked off once. Even his best efforts weren’t enough to put a dent in UMHB’s dominance of HSU.
“It’s going to be a long year (until the teams meet again next fall in Abilene),” Feaster said. “Every time we play these guys, it’s such a heated rivalry. They’ve had the upper hand on us lately. But every time we play them, it’s always a good, physical game.
“We’ll be ready for them next year. And we have the utmost respect for those guys.”
Fredenburg, too, has experienced close losses in the UMHB-HSU series. So after surviving a pair of down-to-the-wire battles with the Cowboys in less than two months, he had at least a little feeling of relief to go along with plenty of excitement.
“It’s very difficult to beat somebody twice in the same season,” said Fredenburg, whose team posted its 11th playoff victory in the last five years. “That’s hard to do because they get a chance to tweak some things to correct issues from the first game.
“When you win the first game you think, ‘We did this successfully, so we’re not going to change.’ And to do it (beat Hardin-Simmons) six times in a row is pretty impressive for these youngsters.”
And now that Fredenburg and UMHB are past HSU and into the second round of the playoffs for the fifth straight season, it’s business as usual for the Crusaders, who will host No. 10 Wesley (Del.) at noon next Saturday.
“I could speak for hours about the program and the things that the university has allowed us to do and the things that our players do,” he said. “They expect to be in this position. They work to be in this position. It’s not that they’re gaudy about it. They just go to work.
“I’m just along for the ride, and it has been an enormous amount of fun for us.”
gwille@temple-telegram.com
