Oct. 12, 2008

Story courtesy of Morningside Sports Information

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Morningside (Iowa) used a record-breaking aerial assault en route to a 63-13 romp past Hastings (Neb.) College in its Homecoming football game on Saturday (Oct. 11).

The fifth-ranked Mustangs set a school single-game record with eight touchdown passes to break their former record of six TD passes in a 2005 NAIA Playoff victory against St. Ambrose University. Ian Gilworth threw seven of the scoring strikes to break the Mustangs’ individual single-game record of six TD passes by Craig Fobbe in the 2005 playoff win against St. Ambrose.

The Mustangs, who climbed to 5-0 at the midway point of their schedule, turned the game into an early route by scoring touchdowns on their first three offensive possessions of the game. Morningside led 35-0 at the intermission.

The Mustangs’ 63 points was a season’s high and marked their third straight game with 58 or more points.

Gilworth threw touchdown passes of 23 yards to Antuan Bloom, three yards to Blake Anderson, and 26 yards to Beau Kildow in the first quarter. He connected with Kildow for an eight-yard TD pass in the second quarter, and then added TD passes of 41 yards to Bloom, 12 yards to Anderson, and 24 yards to Bloom in the third quarter. His record-breaking seventh touchdown pass came on the 24-yard strike to Bloom with 23 seconds left in the third quarter.

Backup quarterback Tim Richard threw the Mustangs’ eighth touchdown pass of the game with a 12-yard strike to Mark Waters with 8:58 left in the game.

Gilworth finished with 19 completions in 24 attempts for 287 yards, while Richard was two-for-two for 17 yards.

C.J. Gradoville kicked PATs after each of the Mustangs’ nine touchdowns and became Morningside’s all-time leader with 85 career PATs to break the former school record of 79 PATs by Dave Chop from 1983-85. Gradoville had made 85 of his 86 career PAT attempts.

Morningside rushed for 202 yards and had three backs run for over 40 yards. Joe Don Hunter led the way with 76 yards in 10 carries, including a 27-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. Jake Peterson added 55 yards in 12 carries and Pete Lewis ran the ball five times for 43 yards.

Bloom caught five passes for 117 yards and three touchdowns, while Anderson had a team-high seven receptions that went for 61 yards and two touchdowns. Kildow added five catches for 88 yards and a pair of scores.

Justin Taylor topped the Mustangs’ tackle chart with nine stops. Marshall Tuttle was right behind with eight tackles, including a quarterback sack.

Mike Buckley had an interception to extend the Mustangs’ streak to 17 consecutive games with at least one interception. Bret Nickolite blocked a Hastings punt to go along with seven tackles.