ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – Fort Hays State secured its best start in school history with a 38-10 road win at Missouri Western on Saturday (Oct. 21). The No. 8 ranked Tigers move to 8-0 for the first time ever, eclipsing the 7-0 mark of the 1917 squad. The Tigers used their third consecutive second-half shutout of a team to run away with the win after leading by just 11 at halftime.
 
The Tigers picked up their first win in St. Joseph since 1987 after dropping their last six meetings with the Griffons there. It was the first win for FHSU at Missouri Western since joining the MIAA. After dropping 11 straight to the Griffons overall, FHSU has now won the last two meetings.

With the win, Fort Hays State has now tied its school record for most wins in a season. The Tigers reached eight wins in each of the last two seasons, but they now can set the bar even higher.
 
The Tiger defense made its presence known early, forcing 3-and-outs on the first two Missouri Western drives of the game. A poor snap by Missouri Western on the punt attempt at the end of their first drive caused the punter to fumble and Kamon Clayton dove on the ball in the endzone for a Tiger touchdown. Following the second punt, it took just three plays for the Tigers to find the endzone again. Jacob Mezera hit Monterio Burchfield on a quick slant, who beat his defender and ran all the way to the endzone for a 67-yard touchdown. At the 8:11 mark of the first quarter, it was already 14-0 in favor of the Tigers.
 
After the fast start, the Tiger offense sputtered a bit, having to punt the ball on their next four drives. Missouri Western eventually put its first points of the game on the board at the 10:02 mark of the second quarter with a 41-yard field goal by Tyler Basch to make it 14-3. The Tiger defense continued to keep the Griffon offense in check, but a key turnover led to more points for the Griffons. Missouri Western was forced to punt from its own 30 with about three minutes to go in the first half, but on the return, Layne Bieberle tried to make too many defenders miss and a Griffon knocked the ball free. Missouri Western recovered at the FHSU 19 and used the short field to score its only touchdown on a 3-yard pass from Skyler Windmiller to Keylan Mack with 52 seconds remaining in the half. All of the sudden, the momentum felt to be shifting to the Griffons as they were set to get the ball back at the start of the second half after winning the coin toss.
 
Instead of being content with the four-point lead, the Tigers squelched the momentum shift immediately in the small amount of time remaining in the opening half. Kenneth Iheme chunked off a 12-yard run, followed by a 31-yard scamper by Mezera. Then Monterio Burchfield elevated to catch a 25-yard pass from Mezera and use fancy footwork to stay inbounds down the right sideline. Two plays later, Iheme found the endzone on a rush from four yards out and the Tigers extended their lead to 21-10 just before halftime.
 
In the first half, FHSU limited MWSU to just 80 yards on 36 plays. The Tiger defense was very stout in the first quarter, holding to Griffons to -3 yards overall. By halftime, the MIAA's top rushing offense, averaging 246.7 yards per game on the ground, had just 47.
 
The defense continued its strong play in the second half, leaving no doubt of a letdown out of the locker room. The Tigers forced a 3-and-out on the Griffons' first drive after halftime. The offense kept its foot on the gas pedal as a Kenneth Iheme 43-yard run with a horse-collar tackle on the end put the Tigers in striking distance quickly. Charles Tigner capped a six play, 82-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown run to make it 28-10.
 
Doyin Jibowu came up with an interception on the second play of the next Griffon drive, his third interception over the last two weeks, giving the ball back to the Tiger offense quickly. Burchfield had a nice 34-yard reception that pushed the Tigers inside the redzone, then back-to-back 9-yard runs by Iheme had the Tigers in the endzone again and leading 35-10. From that point the offense went to work on chewing up the clock each time it touched the ball the rest of the way, and a 19-yard field goal by Brandon Brown capped the scoring at the 10:34 mark of the fourth quarter. Tevin Evans put a seal on the second half shutout with an interception with 1:56 to play.
 
Fort Hays State finished with 450 yards of total offense, showing good balance once again with 248 through the air and 202 on the ground. FHSU has now won 21 straight games when scoring at least 30 points and has a record of 24-1 when rushing for at least 200 yards since the start of the 2013 season. Mezera completed 14-of-22 passes for all 248 passing yards with Burchfield doing the majority of the damage with five catches for 184 yards. Iheme rushed for over 100 yards for the fourth straight game, leading the team with 114. With the effort, Iheme went over 2,000 rushing yards for his career, now with 2,072 in his career. Tigner finished with 78 on just 11 carries.
 
Defensively, the Tigers held the Griffons to just 188 yards of total offense. FHSU has now held two teams under 200 total yards this season, with 184 allowed to Northeastern State as the season low. The Griffons only had a net of 56 rushing yards. Josh Caldwell, the conference's top rusher, had just 72 yards, while the Tigers caused 69 yards of loss in the rushing department from the conference's top rushing team. A pair of bad snaps contributed 36 of those yards lost. Windmiller threw for 132 yards, completing just 13-of-29 attempts. Mack was his top target with six catches for 55 yards. Tanner Hoekman led the Tigers with nine tackles, while Kolt Trachsel, Sterling Swopes, Sheldon Schmidt, and Nathan Shepherd all had sacks. Jibowu collected his fourth interception of the season.
 
The Tigers kept pace with No. 1 ranked Northwest Missouri State for first place in the MIAA standings. The Bearcats posted a 19-0 shutout of Lindenwood this week, matching Fort Hays State's 8-0 start. Both are two games clear of third-place Central Missouri at 6-2.
 
Fort Hays State heads back home and faces Emporia State at Lewis Field Stadium in Hays on Saturday (Oct. 28). Game time is set for 2 pm.