NORTH NEWTON - Henry Austad prowess throwing the football has been well documented. He's also pretty darn good running the ball.
Austad rushed for two touchdowns and threw for two more in leading Kansas Wesleyan to a 38-7 Kansas Conference victory over Bethel on Saturday night at Thresher Stadium.
The Coyotes improved to 4-0 under first-year coach Matt Middleton.
Austad, a graduate student, threw for 185 yards with both scoring tosses going to Rhadarious Lomax-Spivey - a 15 yarder in the second quarter then 26 yards in the fourth quarter. He also had 58 yards rushing on seven carries and scored on a two-yard run in the first quarter and went in from 29 yards out in the third quarter.
"Henry's so super talented, he's our quarterback, he does a great job," KWU coach Matt Middleton said.
Caden Middleton, the coach's son, also played and directed a touchdown drive early in the second quarter that culminated with a four-yard scoring pass to Junior Akintunde.
"He knows his limitations, he's not going to try to do too much, he's going to give me all the right looks and drive down the field and score," Matt Middleton said of Caden. "I have a quarterback who's played a lot of football up to this year and we're blessed with that. I do think we have two good ones and I'm proud of both of them."
Defensively the Coyotes were dominant for the fourth consecutive week limiting Bethel to 160 yards on 57 plays, an averaging of 2.8 per play. The Threshers had 48 yards rushing on 31 attempts, an average of 1.5. Myles Elam and CJ Buckhalter had five tackles apiece.
Opposing teams have scored a combine 30 points against KWU through the first four games.
Wesleyan led 21-7 at halftime and took control in the second half limiting Bethel to four first downs.
"I thought we played much better in the second half than we did in the first half for sure" Middleton said. "I think we came out flat to be honest with you. I think it was one of those things where you deal with kids, you're facing an 0-3 team and they lost to three hammers, three top 20 teams in the country. I think we just felt like we were going to get it done and we got punched in the mouth.
"At halftime I got after them pretty good and the challenge was that's not the style of ball we play. We need to go finish; we're letting teams hang around and I was pleased with how we finally ran the ball in the second half and did some different things."
KWU took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter on Austad's two-yard run that capped a 13-play, 75-yard drive.
After Bethel tied it on the second play of the second quarter the Coyotes answered with Middleton at the controls going 39 yards in seven plays, the touchdown pass to Akintunde coming with 9:30 left in the half.
Isaiah Dickerson's intercepted a Byron Reese pass on Bethel's next possession and Austad cashed in three plays later on his first TD pass to Lomax-Spivey with 7:47 left in the half.
Bethel attempted a fake punt midway through the third quarter, but the Coyotes immediately shut it down at the Threshers' 34-yard line and Austad scored from 29 yards out two plays later making it 28-7 with 5:30 left in the quarter.
Austad found Lomax-Spivey for the 26-yard touchdown at the 13:00 mark of the final period. The eight-play drive covered 83 yards.
Talon Cope's 28-yard field goal with 1:17 remaining ended the scoring and finished a 15-play, 78-yard drive.
KWU had 437 total yards - 223 passing and 214 rushing. D'Heaven Domena had a team-best 61 yards rushing on 16 carries; Lomax-Spivey caught five passes for 80 yards and Eric Hunter four for 49 yards.
"It's like my wife (Kayla) just told me 'a win's a win and we're excited,'" Middleton said. "We're blessed to be 4-0."