William Penn Pulls Away from Central Methodist in Second Half
William Penn University Statesmen Football pulled ahead of Central Methodist in the second half.
Oskaloosa — The #12 Statesmen football team defended its ranking by rolling past Central Methodist (Mo.) 56-16 in a Heart of America Athletic Conference North-South Crossover game Saturday.
William Penn (3-1) overcame a poor start by firing on all cylinders in the final three quarters and especially in the second half. Trailing 10-7 after the first period, the home squad outscored the Eagles (1-3) 49-6 and played big in all facets of the victory.
CMU did not appear impressed early on by its foe’s high ranking, however, scoring on just the third play of the game.
The Statesmen could not answer on their first possession, but took advantage of great field position in their second drive to tie up the game. Tyler Hafner (Sr., Oskaloosa, Iowa, Communications) finished off a 32-yard possession with a two-yard plunge.
An Eagle field goal put the visitors up one last time, but Nathan Tvedt (Sr., Oskaloosa, Iowa, Business Management) gave WPU the lead for good on a 12-yard scamper early in the second quarter.
Jatavius Stewart (Sr., Rock Hill, S.C., Biology) then added a big score right before intermission, knifing through the defense for a 31-yard touchdown reception. Stewart caught two balls from Hafner for 42 yards, while Hafner was 3-for-7 for 46 yards.
Fortunately, the navy and gold had no need for an air presence as the bread-and-butter ground attack was unstoppable. WPU finished the night with 446 yards with 400 coming via the rush; nine different players had at least 10 yards.
Walter Eastwood (Jr., Garden City, Mo., Computer Science) kept the score at 20-10 by picking off a pass deep on the Statesmen’s side of the field in the final seconds.
It is assumed the coaching staff lit a sizable fire under their players in the locker room as the mentees responded with dominance in the third and fourth quarters.
Neither team (WPU fumble in its territory, CMU punt) could accomplish anything on their first drives of the third stanza, but on the second play of WPU’s second possession, Hafner broke the game wide open by sprinting past the Eagle defense for an 83-yard TD. He finished with 86 yards on eight runs.
The special teams unit made its first of two huge plays just two minutes later when Kevin Shrauger (Sr., Nixa, Mo., Physical Education) blocked a Central Methodist field goal. The pigskin was kicked across much of the gridiron before Shrauger himself finally pounced on it at the CMU 14-yard line. Five plays down the road, Tyler Goble (Sr., Des Moines, Iowa, Secondary Education) extended the margin to 34-10 with a one-yard rush. Goble headlined the rushing group with 88 yards, while Hafner had 86.
Jake Baptiste (So., Salt Lake City, Utah, Psychology) added another big effort, recovering an Eagle fumble at their own 3-yard line. Goble found pay dirt one more time with this effort coming from three yards out.
As aforementioned, special teams was impactful Saturday as Van Parker (So., Muskegon, Mich., Physical Education) matched Shrauger by also blocking a kick. The sophomore blew through the line on a Central Methodist punt and the ricocheted ball went through the end zone for a safety. It was then 50-10 in favor of William Penn.
Second-string QB Nick Locher (FR., Owensboro, Ky., Physical Education) eventually put a pretty bow on the crossover victory with an 11-yard scoring run with 3:29 left in regulation.
Aaron Osborne (Sr., Houston, Texas, Physical Education), with 48 yards, and Hunter Condit (FR., Perry, Okla., Communications), with 47, also did well running the ball.
Shrauger had a team-best six tackles, and Cameron Colbert (Sr., Jenks, Okla., Business Management) and Taylan Ybarra (Sr., Wellington, Kan., Education) produced a sack each. The defense limited the visitors to 255 total yards, including just 29 on 30 rushing attempts.
WPU was able to overcome losing the turnover battle, 3-2.
“I am so pleased with the way we played tonight!” Head Coach Todd Hafner said. “We had one of the best weeks of practice we have had in a long time and the guys carried it over into the game. We again were able to dig ourselves out of a hole and then it became a great night in a hurry!”
“We will again go back to work and try to go and have a repeat performance against Evangel,” Hafner added.
Next Up: William Penn travels to Springfield, Mo. next Saturday to face Evangel in another Heart crossover game at 6 p.m.
