Hastings College put together one of its best performances against Morningside in years Saturday during homecoming at Lloyd Wilson Field.

A strong rushing attack helped the Broncos take the Mustangs into the fourth quarter, but in the end NAIA No. 4 Morningside came away with a 41-31 victory over the Broncos.

That was far different from the last 10 times Hastings College has played Morningside. The Mustangs’ closest game in that stretch was 55-18 in 2023.

“I’m disappointed that we didn’t have a chance at the end of the game to win the game, because it felt like (from) the things that we did that we deserved to have a chance to win the game,” Hastings College coach Matt Franzen said. “But at the same point, I’m really proud of our guys, because so many teams going into this game beat themselves before it starts.”

The Broncos (2-3) stayed in the game with an explosive rushing attack that accounted for 344 yards. It all started on the third play of the day when Dalton Armbruster broke loose for 59 yards all the way to the Morningside 9. That led to a 9-yard TD run by Kaiden Merryman and a 7-0 Bronco lead.

But there was much more to come.

Morningside (3-1) scored touchdowns in its first three possessions, but then the Bronco defense tightened up. The Mustangs held a 20-10 lead at the half.

They upped that to 27-10 on their first possession of the second half on a 34-yard TD pass from Zack Chevalier to Jakob Nelson. Chevalier finished the game 33-for-45 passing for 381 yards and four touchdowns.

On HC’s first play of the half, Armbruster went around the end for 75 yards and a TD to make it 27-17. Morningside answered right back on a 5-yard TD pass from Chevalier to Lennx Brown.

But the Broncos weren’t done yet. On their next play, Merryman went 72 yards for another TD to cut the Morningside lead to 34-24.

Franzen said two of those long rushing plays were the exact same play, while another was a slight variation of it.

“Those running backs run those plays really well,” Franzen said. “Kaiden Merryman, he’s just this flat sprinter, and when he gets to the corner, he’s going. Nobody’s gonna catch him.

“Dalton’s gotta be a little more crafty. He has good speed rather than breakaway speed. The piano was on his back, on his touchdown run in the third quarter. (Fortunately), the guy chasing him wasn’t having any more luck getting his wind, so Dalton was able to make it to the end zone.”

The success of the rushing attack was a pleasant surprise for Franzen.

“I said 150 would be a great rushing number against these guys,” he said. “Honestly, if we can get 100 I’ll probably be pretty happy with 100 rushing and 200 in the air, and the sheet in my hand rushing says 344, and there were a lot of more big, long plays. You know, we executed it well. The game plan was excellent.”

Part of that game plan was being physical. Franzen said he and his assistants talked to the players about that during the week.

“I knew they were going to have some speed and some skills and some things better than anybody that we’ve seen, or maybe better than anybody we will see all season,” he said

“But the one thing we could do is we could be physical with these guys, and the physicality will neutralize that speed if we do it well enough.”

Maybe the biggest play of the game came with 2:35 left in the third quarter. The Broncos went back to punt, but Travon Shaw’s punt was blocked and Brecken Schossow picked it up and went 30 yards for the touchdown and a 41-24 lead.

“I think our schemes were sound,” Franzen said. “I think we were late on the blocked punt. I think we took a little time. And I even told Trav after the first punt to take some time, because Morningside hasn’t been trying to block punts this season. They’ve been trying to set up their returns.”

The Broncos cut into that lead later in the third on a 6-yard pass from Carson Kudlacek to Cooper Butler, but then the teams battled to a scoreless fourth quarter.

Down two scores, the Broncos had to throw the ball and Morningside knew it.

“Down the stretch, it became evident that we were going to have to throw the ball, and that’s when the pressure got a little more and the pocket squeezed a lot,” Franzen said.

Kudlacek was 16-for-33 passing for 146 yards. The Broncos racked up 490 total yards while Morningside had 489.

“I mean, that 41-31 against the (No. 4) team in the country is nothing to be ashamed of, and I think we probably got better today as a football team, with half the season still coming,” Franzen said.