YANKTON, SD. – The Hastings College football team set the tone early and ended up winning a wild high scoring affair 45-42 over Mount Marty on Saturday afternoon.
This season, the Broncos’ defense had been doing the brunt of the work but it was the offense that exploded as it took just two plays for the Hastings’s offense to strike first. Carson Kudlacek connected with Ethan Wilborn on a 36-yard reception into Lancer territory. Then Eli Nappe won a jump ball at the goal line for a 39-yard touchdown as the Broncos were on the board leading 7-0 just :42 into the game.
Mount Marty came right back with an 11 play 67-yard drive to tie the game but the Bronco offense was just getting started.
The teams would trade punts and then it would be the running backs that would carry the Broncos to the end zone as Josh Ray and Brett Simonsen made plays running the ball and catching it out of the back field until Simonsen finished off the 57-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown to put the Broncos back on top at 14-7.
Then the defense came up big on the first play of the next drive as Marcus Dustin intercepted Ken Gay with his fourth pick of the season and returned it 17-yards to the Lancer 32. From there Kudlacek hit Jaishawn Wright for a 31-yard gain and then Kudlacek finished off the drive with a one yard plunge to give HC the 21-7 lead late in the first quarter.
Things slowed down a bit for the Bronco offense in the second quarter which allowed the Lancers to get to within seven at 21-14 but the defense came up big once again as Gio Mendoza intercepted Gay and then made a house call returning it 22-yards for his first career pick six to put Hastings up 28-14 with under 3:00 to go in the half. MMU would keep things interesting with a late score as HC led 28-21 at halftime.
Momentum stayed with the Lancers to start the third quarter moving the ball 69-yards on just four plays with Jayden Horrach scoring from three yards out to make it 28-27 following the blocked extra point.
Then the Bronco passing attack went back to work as Kudlacek hit Wilborn for a 24-yard gain and two plays later the two connected again for a 16-yard gain to the Lancer 35. From there, Kudlacek found Tanner Schneiderheinz for a 35-yard strike to put Hastings up 35-27 early in the third quarter.
The Bronco defense would get a stop and the offense would put together a long 17-play drive that would be capped off by a four yard touchdown run by Kudlacek as the Broncos held what seemed to be a comfortable 42-27 lead late in the third quarter.
But Mount Marty continued to fight getting a touchdown early in the fourth to make it 42-34.
The Broncos would get one more score midway through the fourth when Casper Feijen connected on a 35-yard field goal and this proved to be huge as Hastings would turn the ball over on a punt return and Mount Marty took advantage with a touchdown to make it 45-42 with 4:02 remaining in the game.
In this high scoring affair, it seemed as though it would only be a matter of time before the Lancers would score again but Mount Marty would not see the ball for the rest of the game as the Bronco offense methodically moved the ball picking up four first downs which enabled them to run out the clock as the Broncos ended its four game skid with the 45-42 victory.
Kudlacek finished the game 25-for-40 throwing for 308 yards and two touchdowns. He also scored two touchdowns on the ground.
Wilborn led the team with 83-yards receiving while Nappe and Schneiderheinz each had touchdowns. Simonsen led the team with 76-yards on the ground and a score.
Gavin White had himself a great game finishing with six total tackles with four of them being tackles for loss to go along with two sacks. Mendoza added three tackles to go along with his pick six and two pass breakups.
Hastings improves to 4-5 (3-5) on the year and will be back in action Saturday Nov. 4 as Midland comes to town with kickoff set for 1:00 pm out on Lloyd Wilson Field.