Saturday, Sept. 23 Washburn football hosted the University of Central Missouri Mules at Yager Stadium for Family Day. Both teams had a strong start in the first quarter but the Ichabods struggled to keep the momentum and ultimately fell to the Mules who won the game 58-28.
UCM was quick to score a touchdown in the first quarter, but a failed extra point attempt kept the score at 6-0 Mules.
Washburn’s defense turned the tables when Josh Grant, defensive back and freshman in entrepreneurship and leadership, intercepted a pass from UCM’s quarterback Zach Zembrowski. Sam Van Dyne, freshman quarterback, made a pass to D.J Bell, wide receiver and freshman business major, who made it to the end zone resulting in Washburn’s first touchdown of the game. The Ichabods then scored again in the beginning of the second quarter leading the Mules 14-12.
UCM continued to make big offensive plays keeping a fast-tempo offense making it difficult for Washburn’s defense to keep up. They scored 22 points, taking the lead from the Ichabods.
The Mules were up 34-14 by halftime.
Down by 41-14, the Ichabods continued to fight in the third quarter and scored a touchdown when Maury Sullivan, wide receiver and freshman kinesiology major, caught an 11-yard touchdown pass from Van Dyne. Sullivan scored again in the fourth quarter, when he caught a seven-yard pass from Hayden Clark freshman quarterback, giving the Ichabods a final score of 28 points.
“I knew I was gonna catch it, and it was just at the end,” Sullivan said. “Thank God for everything that happened today, I was just praying about it and asked God for it. So he delivered.”
The Mules kept up the fast pace offensively and continued to score making it too difficult for the Ichabods to overcome the point deficit. Central Missouri finished the game on top beating Washburn with the final score of 58-28.
“Central did a great job of just keeping the gas on the pedal and never gave us relief, ” said Craig Schurig, Washburn’s head coach. “We thought maybe in the second half we’d get an early score and get right back into it, but no that’s not what happened. You got to turn the page fast and in this conference, you know, every team is pretty darn good. So we gotta get ready for Kearney.”
The Ichabods are 1-3 this season and are set to face the University of Nebraska at Kearney on Saturday, Sept. 30 in Kearney, Nebraska at 2 p.m.
Edited by Aja Carter, Larissa Morgan and LeSha’ Davis
