Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Warriors win, cue up ‘instant classic’ in return
HENDRIX 46, WESTMINSTER 44
CONWAY — Hendrix can now boast about having college football’s longest twogame winning streak.
Steve Crenshaw kicked a 25-yard field goal with :01 second left Saturday at YoungWise Stadium, and the Warriors celebrated their return to college football after a nearly 53-year hiatus with a 46-44 victory over Westminster (Mo.) College in front of a sellout crowd of 2,942.
It will go down as Hendrix’s second consecutive victory, but its first in 19,286 days, dating to a 7-6 victory over Ouachita Baptist on Nov. 18, 1960.
“It’s an instant classic for Hendrix,” said Coach Buck Buchanan, whose team outgained Westminster 538-410. “Just glad we were on top in the end.”
Crenshaw, from Texarkana, Texas, had never kicked a game-winning field goal before Saturday.
“Being the first college football game of my career, it’s still unreal,” he said. “I can’t believe it. When the time came, we could execute and do our jobs. Now, moving on, we can do what we’ve got to do, win some games.”
Quarterback Seth Peters put Hendrix in game-winning position by taking the Warriors on a 15-play, 67-yard drive in 3:05 after Westminster’s Kevin Ludwig gave the Blue Jays a 44-43 lead with a 28-yard field goal.
Peters, who threw for 2,987 yards and 29 touchdowns last season at Greenbrier High School, kept the Warriors’ drive alive with a 5-yard pass to Spencer Smith on fourthand-5 with 1: 18 remaining at the Westminster 32. Five plays later, Dayton Winn ran 19 yards to the Westminster 2.
Two rushing plays went for negative yardage, pushing the ball back to the Westminster 8, with Peters sliding to the middle of the field before timeout was called with 6 seconds left.
One second remained after Crenshaw’s kick went through the uprights, so Hendrix still had to kick off. Crenshaw bounced the kickoff along the turf and into the hands of Westminster’s Mike Washington, who caught the ball at the 36 and advanced it to the Blue Jays 49 before Hendrix players brought him down, and the celebration was on.
Buchanan said Peters showed the moxie needed for Hendrix to win in its first NCAA Division III game.
“He’s a smooth competitor all the way through,” Buchanan said. “He’s always ready to play the next play.”
Hendrix trailed 35-21 with 10:53 to play in the third quarter, but the Warriors, with Peters throwing one touchdown pass, scored the next 22 points to take a 43-35 lead with 12:35 to play in the game.
“We’re real young, and you can tell right now,” Peters said. “There’s small things we can correct. We put it together. Our defense got some turnovers and turned it up.”
Peters finished 25 of 40 passes for 318 yards with 4 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. His first interception came on the Warriors’ first series. His second interception was returned 39 yards for a touchdown by Josh Bromberg to cut Hendrix’s lead to 43-41 with 9:29 to play in the game.
Hendrix retained the lead when Westminster’s twopoint conversion failed, but the Blue Jays regained the lead on Ludwig’s field goal with 3:06 to play, setting the stage for Hendrix’s game-winning drive.
Hendrix travels to Birmingham-Southern on Saturday, with a victory in hand, to the delight of Buchanan.
“The one and the firsts of everything are out of the way,” said Buchanan, who was an assistant coach at Louisiana College before arriving in Conway in 2012. “Now it’s about building the rest of the program on top of it.”