Football Drops Defensive Battle at Hastings

Doane Football traveled out to Hastings to take on the Broncos in the longest running rivalry in the state of Nebraska. In a defensive battle, Hastings came out on top, 14-9, in the 121st meeting.

After a scoreless first quarter, Hastings collected the first big play of the game on defense as they stopped Doane near mid-field on a 4th-and-1. The Broncos took over and five plays later, they covered 52 yards for a touchdown. Antoine Murphy scored on a 16-yard run for a 7-0 lead. The score would be the only one of the first half.

The big special teams play of the first half came off the foot of Kelen Meyer (FR/Ord, Neb.) as he booted an 86-yard punt, breaking the previous school record set in 2007.

Doane scored their first points of the game on their opening possession of the 3rd quarter. Meyer hit from 29 yards out to cut the Bronco lead to 7-3. Hastings extended their lead late in the quarter, hitting on a 59-yard pass from John Zamora to Courtney Lane.

The Tigers would score the only points of the 4th quarter as Cruz Kirwan (FR/San Antonio, Texas) connected on a 25-yard pass to Colby Frazier (FR/New Caney, Texas) with 3:06 to play to pull Doane within five points. The two-point conversion attempt was unsuccessful, leaving the score at 14-9. The defense was able to get the ball back for Doane with 41 seconds left but Doane was unsuccessful on four passing attempts to close out the game.

Cruz finished the game 17-of-38 for 198 yards and a touchdown. Brehan Lambert (SR/Lincoln, Neb.) finished with five receptions in the game for 44 yards. Frazier had three receptions for 65 yards. Adam Wasserman (SR/Fairbury, Neb.) led the ground game with 43 yards on 16 carries. The Tigers had 243 yards of total offense, 198 through the air and 45 on the ground.

Meyer finished the day with eight punts for 405 yards, an average of 50.6 per punt with two inside the Bronco-20 yard line. He was 1-of-2 on field goal attempts.

Defensively, the Tigers allowed 340 yards of offense to Hastings as the Broncos finished with 94 yards on the ground and 246 through the air. Jarett Boggs (FR/Fremont, Neb.) was in on 13 tackles to lead Doane. Cade Wiseman (SO/Sutton, Neb.) added 10 tackles and Ty Barbazon (SR/Ocala, Fla.) was in on seven. Barbazon led the team with two tackles for loss. The Tigers had three sacks and six tackles for loss.

Doane returns home on October 22 to host No. 4 Northwestern at 1 PM.