SEGUIN, Texas -- With a dominating 63-14 win Saturday over Howard Payne, the Texas Lutheran Bulldogs posted the university's first eight-win season since 1976 and put the program in position for an at-large NCAA Division III playoff berth.

TLU, 8-1 and champion of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, will learn its NCAA fate on Sunday. The Bulldogs have never advanced to the NCAA playoffs and have not made a post-season appearance since 1976.

TLU does not have an automatic bid to the NCAA post-season and must receive an at-large bid to play in the NCAA tournament. TLU won NAIA-II national titles in 1974 and 1975 with Jim Wacker as head coach.

"I'm going to go to church first, and I'll be praying," said Danny Padron, TLU's fourth-year head coach. "Whatever happens, happens. I think our kids deserve it, but we'll see."

"It was a convincing win, which is what we needed to give ourselves a chance to get in the playoffs. I thought it was a complete game. We played offense, defense, special teams, and executed all three phases. [I'm] really proud of our guys for playing so hard. This team here (Howard Payne) is a scary team. They've played close with everybody and darn near beat a lot of guys. It wasn't an easy one by any means, but it looked easy, and that's to our credit. We had some guys injured, and other guys stepped up and did a good job."

The Bulldogs were seventh in the latest NCAA DIII South Region poll, but the team received some help Saturday when undefeated Millsaps (Miss.) lost at Rhodes and one-loss Maryville (Tenn.) lost at Huntingdon (Ala.). Millsaps was No. 3 in the South poll, and Maryville was ranked just ahead of TLU, at No. 6.

TLU, coming off last Saturday's first loss of the season, broke open a 14-14 game against Howard Payne. The Bulldogs scored the next 49 points and won going away.

Bulldog senior Dominique Hardaway (Lockhart/Lockhart) rushed for a career-best 158 yards on just 13 carries. He scored three touchdowns, including a 91-yarder in the third quarter that broke the school record for longest rushing TD and longest rush from scrimmage.

The Bulldogs rushed for 320 yards against Howard Payne and averaged 6.8 yards per carry.

TLU tallied 669 yards of total offense (its second highest total of the season). The Bulldogs threw for 349 yards and four touchdowns.

Senior quarterback Brent Peavy (Houston/St. Pius X) set the new TLU single-season record for passing TDs. He tossed four Saturday against HPU and threw for 337. Peavy's 4 TD passes brought his season total to 28.

Peavy also set the new school record for total offense in a season. Peavy's new record total stands at 2,873, and he did it in just nine games.

Two of Peavy's TD passes went to his twin brother, Cameron, who caught 13 passes for 146 yards. Camoron Peavy set the new TLU single-season TD receptions record. He now has 13.

Cameron Peavy also passed the school records for single-season receptions (72) and single-season yardage 1,089. Peavy caught TD passes of three and 18 yards from his brother.

Brent Peavy also sent TD passes in the direction of Lewis Williams II (Houston/Klein Forest) and Dustin Hannon (Tyler/Whitehouse). Williams caught a 32-yarder, and Hannon hauled in a 37-yarder.

TLU intercepted four Howard Payne passes and recovered two fumbles. Freshman safety Matt McCullough (Georgetown/Georgetown) picked off a pair of passes and collected six total tackles. Chantz Singletary (Houston/Westfield) and Jake Bahr (Spring/Concordia Lutheran) also collected interceptions.

TLU also blocked a punt that led directly to a Hardaway TD run. Darian Candler (Humble/Atascocita) came through the line for the block.