By Jim Henry

jhenry@joplinglobe.com

HAYS, Kan. — From the opening minutes, Missouri Southern’s defense set the tone.

The Lions stopped Fort Hays State twice on fourth down-and-inches, and two takeaways set up first-half touchdowns as the Lions dominated the Tigers 28-0 Saturday afternoon at Lewis Field Stadium.

The Lions (4-3, 2-3 MIAA) limited Fort Hays to 195 total yards and notched their first road conference shutout since a 39-0 decision at Southwest Baptist nine years ago.

“I was excited about the way our kids played,” defensive coordinator Daryl Daye said. “That guy (quarterback Anthony Smith) was a definite threat. Our game plan was not to rush him, as you saw. We sat back and let him run around, and I thought we did a good job tackling. He got away from us a couple of times, but he’s a great athlete.”

Smith, who began the year at wide receiver but was moved to quarterback after Mike Garrison suffered a season-ending broken jaw, ran for 134 yards and two touchdowns one week earlier against Missouri Western. The Lions contained Smith to 90 yards on 22 carries and just five runs of 10 yards or longer.

“It’s all about breaking down, feathering him out and letting everybody run to the ball,” said inside linebacker Jared Brawner, who tied his career high with 16 tackles. “When he’s dancing around, you want to get a good hit, but it’s all about just making a play.”

The Lions made a total of 11 tackles behind the line of scrimmage, including three by Brawner and end Nick Teer and two by end Jairius Jarvis and outside linebacker Josh Woodard.

On the Tigers’ first two possessions, they faced fourth-and-short near midfield, but Brawner and Jarvis stopped Jacobb Irvin for a one-yard loss on the first series, and Teer stopped Anthony Dickson for a one-yard loss four minutes later.

“Our D-line had good penetration,” Brawner said. “Those two series helped the confidence of our D-line when we got a couple of penetrations on fourth down. When the line occupies blocks, it lets the linebackers and safeties run around and make plays.”

“The plays we ran are bread-and-butter plays,” Tigers head coach Kevin Verdugo said. “We’ve run them since day one. I’d rather run that any day of the week and twice on Sunday instead of running a quarterback sneak. To get stuffed on it twice, I’ll have to wait until I see the film to see why and what happened, but it’s something I never thought would happen.”

“Critical, critical because that really could have impacted field position in a major way,” Lions head coach Bart Tatum said. “We didn’t convert offensively, but it completely changed the field position aspect of it.”

The Lions did convert twice in the second quarter with quick strikes after turnovers.

Justin Cowper’s 18-yard interception return set up Adam Hinspeter’s 33-yard touchdown pass to Mark Henderson, who made an adjustment to catch the slightly underthrown ball.

Brawner’s fumble recovery at the Tigers’ 15 late in the second quarter set up a 15-yard run on a reverse by wide receiver Daniel Thompson, who cut inside of Johnny Johnson’s block that sealed the defender on the perimeter.

“The first half we were opportunistic,” Tatum said. “There’s no rule that says you get the ball on the 15 and it’s an automatic score. You still have to put it in the end zone, and we executed perfectly on the reverse we had schemed for them.”

The Lions added two second-half scores on Collin Howard’s 30-yard option keeper around right end late in the third quarter and Hinspeter’s 15-yard toss to Henderson early in the fourth quarter.

The Lions gained 179 yards in the second half and 287 for the game. Hinspeter hit 8 of 21 passes for 111 yards, including five to Henderson for 93 yards. Howard gained 77 yards on eight carries.

“At halftime, we talked about how we left a lot of points out there, with the short fields our defense gave us,” Hinspeter said. “We said let’s go out and play better offensive football. The main thing was to stay on the field and move the chains on third down. That’s something we’ve been good at in the past, but we’ve struggled the last few weeks.”

The Lions, who converted 7 of 17 third downs compared to the Tigers’ 3 of 16, play host to Central Missouri on Saturday afternoon.