On Saturday Wayland Baptist earned its first ever victory over a nationally ranked NAIA team with a 31-20 win over Webber International.
Coach Butch Henderson says the win served as a measuring stick for the Pioneers,
“in the big scope of things it’s really big in letting us be able to see where we are on the national playing scale… a lot of our playoff system is built on a rating system and beating somebody in another conference especially if they go back and do well in their conference helps us, it helps us get a national look.”
Wayland Baptist jumped on Webber International early forcing two first half turnovers, the Pioneers led the entire game and Coach Henderson attributed that to leadership from older players,
“what we really needed was just a belief system that you could win and i think this group of young men has bought into that idea, bought into the idea that good things are going to happen.”
Three player earned individual honors for their role in the win over the Warriors, Mitchell Parsley and Daniel Martinez repeated as CSFL players of the week and All-American linebacker Alden Mann was named NAIA National Defensive Player of the Week on top of his CSFL honor.
Wayland enters a bye week before opening up conference play at Bacone, Coach Henderson was happy to have the week off,
“I think right now a bye is perfect, our schedule really plays out well for us we’ve got a lot of nicks and bruises and before we start conference play it’s going to give us a chance to back up a little bit and let some of that heal”
