Mustangs please homecoming crowd with big win over Hastings

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Zack Chevalier admitted Saturday's 52-7 win over Hastings was the most fun he has had donning a Morningside University football jersey.

The Mustangs quarterback threw for four touchdown passes and 441 in the fifth win for the nation's ninth-ranked team in the NAIA on Homecoming.

Each of the first four touchdowns for Morningside (5-1, 5-0 GPAC) were in the air, and Chevalier found three different men throughout that period.

Drew Sellon caught the first two while Nolan Feller caught the next TD pass on an eight-yard play, and Lennx Brown caught the fourth for seven yards, all in the first half.

"We got back into our rhythm, and once we did, it was lights out," Chevalier said. "The biggest challenge was coming off the bye week. It's kind of hard to not come out sluggish, but the crowd woke us up for sure. There were so many people here, and that made us snap out of it."

The last three touchdowns came either on special teams or in the run game.

Max Hough scored from 50 yards out on his first career start. He had 119 rushing yards on 21 carries.

"I thought he did really well," said head coach Steve Ryan of Hough's first start. "He had good, hard runs."

Feller – who scored the final touchdown midway through the fourth quarter – rushed for 61 yards on seven tries.

Sellon led the receivers with 226 yards on 12 catches.

Laken Harnly also returned a punt for 73 yards with 12 minutes, 13 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. It's the first special teams TD this season for Morningside.

Finally, for the Mustangs' scoring, Tommy Fitzsimmons hit a 26-yard field goal in the fourth quarter. Fitzsimmons was also 7-for-7 in extra points.

In all, Morningside amassed 686 yards on 86 plays.

The offense and special teams weren't the only groups who had fun on Saturday. The defense did, too.

The Mustangs' 'D' held Hastings to 159 total yards, seven first downs, and 12 punts. Yes, the Broncos scored early in the first quarter, but after that, Morningside held them silent.
After its touchdown with 3:39 left in the first quarter, Hastings punted on its next 10 of 11 drives.

"That's why there were 52 points on the board," Ryan said. "It says a lot about the defense that they took their bye week seriously and they got better. They played good, sound, assignment football."

Morningside collected 54 total tackles, two sacks for 13 yards, 6.0 total tackles for loss, and one forced fumble.

Senior linebacker Isaac Pingel led the Mustangs with nine total tackles, five of them solo. The next two leading tacklers following the senior from Spencer were Cade Harriman and Dijion Walls with four total tackles.

"We just had a very focused energy today," Pingel said. "We needed to be intentional with what we wanted to do this week. We flew around the field. The D-Line was getting after it up front."