Football | 9/27/2014 10:36:00 PM

Rushing Attack Shines in Braves 56-16 Win Over Southern

Box Score The Braves racked up 410 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns in tonight's 56-16 victory against the defending SWAC Champs, Southern University.
 
Both teams were unsuccessful on their first drives but Southern was first to get in the scoring column on a 55-yard touchdown from Austin Howard to Justin Morgan.
 
Down 7-0, the Braves offense marched 82 yards down the field and capped off the drive with a 35-yard pass from John Gibbs, Jr. to LaDarrien Davis to tie the game at 7-7.
 
Ragsdale scored the second touchdown of the day on a 12-yard run to put the Braves ahead, 14-7 with just over one minute into the second quarter.
 
Senior fullback Alondrea Young scored for the first time this season on a 6-yard pass from Gibbs.  The Braves went ahead 21-7 with 9:34 to play in the second quarter.
 
The Braves began to separate themselves from Southern when Gibbs found his way to the end zone, scampering for 23 yards to give the Braves a 28-7 lead.
 
Southern would score nine consecutive points to cut the lead to 28-16 before the half.
 
After the break, the Braves scored at the 7:11 mark in the third quarter to extend their lead to 35-16.
 
Anthony Williams III had a huge game scoring the next two touchdowns for the Braves from 45 and one-yard out to give the Braves a 49-16 lead.
 
Junior Josh Ivery finished the Jaguars off with a 12-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter.
 
Williams III recorded a career-high 151 yards on 17 carries and scored two touchdowns.  Ragsdale posted a career-high 125 yards and one touchdown. 
 
Gibbs completed 14-of-21 passes for 224 yards and one touchdown while Zerick Rollins caught four passes for 99 yards.
 
Hopson had this to say about today's victory over Southern:
 
"I thought we ran the ball pretty well," said Hopson. "We really executed on offense. Defensively, I thought we played at a fast and physical pace, which is what we had to do to defeat the defending SWAC champions."
 
Despite the one-sided win, Hopson said that the number of fumbles were a problem that the Braves need to fix immediately.
 
"We played aggressive, but we still need to stop all of the turnovers."
 
The Braves will host the Alabama State University Hornets on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN-U.