LORMAN, Miss. – The Alcorn State University football program outscored Southern 13-3 in the fourth quarter, but the Jaguars held on for a 41-33 decision on Saturday at Jack Spinks-Marino Casem Stadium.
Junior quarterback
Lenorris Footman ran for three touchdowns and threw for two more to lead Alcorn (3-4, 3-3 SWAC) offensively. He threw for a career-high 300 yards and rushed for 146.
Southern (5-2, 5-0 SWAC) jumped out to an 11-point lead at half and extended it early in the third quarter. The Braves fought until the very end, but ultimately Lenard Tillery's 195 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns was decisive.
The Braves ran for 272 rushing yards themselves as junior
De'Lance Turner ran for a career-high 96. Junior
Silas Spearman aided the attack with 40 yards on five carries.
In the air, junior
Norlando Veals caught six passes for a team-high 76 yards and a touchdown. Senior
Collins Moore ended with 64 receiving yards.
Defensively, senior
Darien Anderson and sophomore
Sterling Shippy tallied seven tackles apiece. The Braves kept Southern quarterback Austin Howard in-check for most of the day, limiting him to 195 passing yards on 12-of-30 attempts.
PLAY-BY-PLAY SUMMARY
The Braves got the ball first and registered three first downs to move into Southern territory, but the Jags took over at their own 30-yard line after a fumble. On Southern's first play, it ran a trick-play as Willie Quinn threw to Randall Menard for 42 yards. The Jags punched it in on a 12-yard run by Tillery to take a 7-0 lead.
The Braves responded with a seven-play, 75-yard drive, capped by a 21-yard touchdown rush by Footman. The extra point failed after a bad snap went over the holder's head and Alcorn had to dive on it. The drive included a seven-yard pass to Moore on a fourth and five at the Southern 34-yard line which kept the series going.
On Southern's second drive, it completed a big 27-yard pass on a third down to move into Alcorn territory. The Braves were able to hold them to a field goal try, as Ruan Albuquerque knocked through a 39-yarder to make it 10-6 Jaguars at the 3:46 mark of the first quarter.
Alcorn answered with a 34-yard touchdown pass to Veals on their next drive to take the lead 13-10 late in the first quarter. The quick, four-play drive included a 28-yard run by Turner through the middle on a third-and-two.
The Jags re-gained the lead 17-13 at the nine-minute mark of the second quarter after a 33-yard touchdown pass to Curtlan Williams. The play came on a fourth-and-six as Southern elected to go for it.
Southern extended its advantage to 24-13 on its final drive of the half. The Jags took over at their own 20 with 2:14 left and used a 26-yard pass and a 32-yard run to flip the field. The Jags got in the end-zone on a 10-yard pass over the middle to Dillon Beard.
The Jags added-on early in the third quarter with a 63-yard touchdown run by Tillery through the middle on the second play of the half.
Just a few minutes later, Footman cut the deficit to 31-19 after an 83-yard touchdown rush down the right side. He found a hole, sped past the defenders and then made a final cut around the five-yard line as he carried defenders into the end-zone.
Southern pushed its lead back up to 38-20 halfway through the third quarter after a 22-yard touchdown rush by Tillery. The drive included a 30-yard rush by Tillery on a third-and-15 back at the Southern 33-yard line.
Early in the fourth quarter, Footman scrambled for his third touchdown of the contest on a third-and-goal from the three. It ended a long, 11-play drive which included completions to sophomore
Raidarious Anderson, senior
LaDarrien Davis and Veals.
Trailing 38-26, the Braves had a chance to further cut into the deficit when they moved into the redzone with about nine minutes left, but Southern recorded a sack and a fumble to turn them away.
After a Southern field goal, Alcorn kept fighting and scored on a 23-yard touchdown pass to Anderson with 35 seconds left. The Braves attempted the onside kick, but it was kicked too hard and bounced out of bounds after it skipped over Southern's heads.
SCORING SUMMARY
1st Quarter
11:40 – 12-yard rush by L. Tillery (R. Albuquerque XP), 4-70-1:56, 7-0 Southern
7:37 – 21-yard rush by L. Footman (XP failed, bad snap), 7-75-4:03, 7-6 Southern
3:40 – 39-yard field goal by R. Albuquerque, 10-48-3:55, 10-6 Southern
2:25 – 34-yard pass from L. Footman to N. Veals (H. McCraney XP), 4-70-1:07, 13-10 Alcorn
2nd Quarter
9:00 – 33-yard pass from A. Howard to C. Williams (R. Albuquerque XP), 6-51-2:17, 17-13 Southern
0:31 – 10-yard pass from A. Howard to D. Beard (R. Albuquerque XP), 7-80-1:32, 24-13 Southern
3rd Quarter
13:51 – 63-yard rush by L. Tillery (R. Albuquerque XP), 2-72-1:05, 31-13 Southern
10:11 – 83-yard rush by L. Footman (H. McCraney XP), 1-83-0:16, 31-20 Southern
7:02 – 22-yard rush by L. Tillery (R. Albuquerque XP), 6-62-3:02, 38-20 Southern
4th Quarter
13:15 – 3-yard rush by L. Footman (XP blocked), 11-61-4:36, 38-26 Southern
2:22 – 47-yard field goal by R. Albuquerque, 4-5-0:59, 41-26 Southern
0:35 – 23-yard touchdown pass by L. Footman to R. Anderson (H. McCraney XP), 6-70-1:43, 41-33 Southern
NOTES
- Southern defeated Alcorn for its first time in six tries. The Braves had won the previous five meetings, most notably a 38-24 victory in the 2014 SWAC Championship game.
- Footman has totaled 11 touchdowns over the last two seasons against Southern with 432 rushing yards.
- Over the last three games, Alcorn has outscored the opposition 40-6 in the final quarter without allowing a touchdown.
- Alcorn remains tied atop the SWAC East Division after Jackson State fell to Prairie View A&M, 28-14.
- The Braves have now tallied at least 155 rushing yards in six of their seven games this season, including at No. 20 Arkansas.
- Footman's 83-yard rush in the third quarter broke his previous career-long of 60 set last season against Southern on Oct. 31, 2015.
- Turner's career-high in rushing crushed his previous high of 43 set at Alabama A&M on Oct. 8.
- Alcorn's captains were Anderson, Footman and Turner. The Braves won the toss and elected to receive.
- The Braves played without their leading rusher, junior
Arron Baker, and their leading receiver, senior
Jaborian McKenzie, due to injuries.
Quoting Alcorn head coach Fred McNair
Opening Statement
"I thought the first quarter was pretty good. We came out fast, playing, scoring. Then in second we kind of slowed down. We fought in the second half, we just had some turnovers that gave us problems."
On playing after a bye week
"It's usually an advantage to get everybody healed up. We worked on tackling and ball security. But obviously, that didn't really work. We just have to get better."
On turnovers
"When you have four turnovers it makes it really hard to win the game. When you don't tackle you can't have the best possible game. I thought Lenorris played well; he is a dynamic QB and the sky is the limit for him."
Quoting junior quarterback Lenorris Footman
On continuing to try and fight back in the game
"We just tried to keep ourselves in the game. We got down but we can't give up, we always have to fight back."
On his career passing game
"At the end of the day 300 yards doesn't matter if you don't get the win. It's a good achievement but winning the game would have been better."
On his 83-yard touchdown rush
"It gave us momentum, but we needed to be able to keep it going."
UP NEXT
The Braves will travel to Prairie View A&M for a 1 p.m. contest next Saturday. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN3. It is Alcorn's final game against a SWAC West Division opponent, as it wraps up the season against in-state rivals Mississippi Valley State and Jackson State.
Alcorn will look to avenge a hard-fought 40-34 defeat to PVAM last season. The Braves fell behind 40-14 at half when they scored 20 straight points but the comeback fell just short.
The last time they played at PVAM, the Braves could not be stopped offensively and won 77-48 in 2014.
Alcorn has won six of its last seven SWAC road games dating back to last season.
#FearTheBrave
