CANTON, Mo. – Cameron Hardesty tied a school record with five touchdown passes, all in the first half, to help Evangel run away from Culver-Stockton, 51-14, Saturday night in Heart of America Athletic Conference action.
Hardesty tossed all five touchdown passes in the first half as he finished 16-of-23 for 178 yards. The sophomore tied the single-game record held by Jake Anders who also tossed five touchdown passes against Culver-Stockton in 1989.
The Crusaders scored on their opening drive when Zayne Kyser took a Hardesty pass for a score to complete an 11-play 72-yard drive.
After both teams traded punts to end the first quarter, a safety by the Evangel defense would push the lead to 9-0 for less than a minute. Jansen Acklin returned the ensuing kickoff 85-yards to the Wildcat 15-yard line setting up a Madison Davis touchdown from Hardesty on the second play of the drive.
Hardesty would find three different receivers for his third, fourth and fifth touchdowns of the game. Chance Smith caught a 35-yard pass, and after a 2-yard touchdown run from Zayne Kyser, Adam Schrock slipped behind the secondary for a 27-yard touchdown reception with 1:46 left in the half.
However, Hardesty would find Dallas Hester for a 10-yard touchdown pass and catch with 14 seconds left in the second quarter to push the Crusader lead to 44-0. The touchdown was the second consecutive game with a score for Hester as Hardesty moved his season total to eight.
After pitching a first-half shutout, Culver-Stockton managed to get into the end zone twice in the second half.
Senior Josh Evans added two more sacks to move into fourth place on the all-time Evangel sack list with 23.5 career sacks. Evans passed Michael Odom to hold onto sole possession of fourth (92-95) and sits just 3.5 sacks behind Harvey Berrien (94-97) in third and 6.5 behind Lamont Wynn (98-01) for second place.
Brady Dawson led the Crusaders with eight tackles as Isaiah Daniels added six tackles. Dawson also intercepted a pass in the first half for the game’s only turnover going in favor of Evangel.
UP NEXT
Evangel returns home next Saturday to host William Penn in the Hall of Fame game. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
