LORMAN, Miss. – In a game that featured a lot of offense, it was the defense of the Alcorn State University football program that made a stand in the end to defeat Alabama A&M 34-28 Saturday at Jack Spinks-Marino Casem Stadium on Senior Day.
The Braves (7-3, 5-1 SWAC) led 34-28 when the dangerous AAMU (6-5, 3-3 SWAC) offense came on the field with 2:40 left. Alcorn thought it won the game after junior
Juwan Taylor ran back a pick-six, but pass interference was called on the Braves to keep AAMU alive and placed the ball at the 50.
The Bulldogs continued to march down the field, and called timeout with four seconds left at the Alcorn 14. On the final play, the game ended on an illegal touching penalty after the intended wide receiver stepped out of bounds in the back of the endzone, came back in and was the first to touch the ball.
The game was a shootout for the most part. The two teams combined for 1,053 yards of offense as the Braves rushed for 234 yards and passed for 288, while the Bulldogs rushed for 259 and passed for 272.
Junior
LeCharles Pringle hauled in three touchdowns and a game-high 113 yards. Senior
Raidarious Anderson also registered a touchdown.
Junior Felix "Triggerman" Harper threw for 288 yards and four touchdowns. He also rushed for a career-high 79 yards. Freshman
Niko Duffey also turned in a 100-yard rushing performance and a touchdown.
On defense, junior
Juwan Taylor shined with 10 tackles and an interception. Senior
Javen Morrison also recorded an interception. Junior
Qwynnterrio Cole reached double-figures in tackles with 10.
For AAMU, senior running back Jordan Bentley broke loose for 245 rushing yards and four touchdowns. Aqeel Glass threw for 264 yards, and Abdul-Fatai Ibrahim ended with 112 receiving yards.
Alcorn will conclude the regular season next weekend when it travels to Jackson State for a 2 p.m. contest at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium. Tickets for the game are on sale.
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With a win next weekend, Alcorn would clinch home field advantage for the SWAC Championship.
PLAY-BY-PLAY SUMMARY
Alcorn got the ball first and wasted little time. Harper connected with senior
Chris Blair for 14 yards to move into AAMU territory, and then found Pringle for a 37-yard touchdown to make it 7-0 early.
On AAMU's first possession, the team decided to go for it on a 4th-and-4 play at the Alcorn 19, but the pass fell incomplete for a turnover on downs.
The Bulldogs took over again midway through the first quarter after a defensive stand. A methodical drive featured four completions and six rushes including a five-yard sprint by Bentley to tie the game 7-7 at the 2:53 mark.
The Braves were threatening early in the second quarter after a 20-yard rush by Duffey moved Alcorn into the red zone. However, on 3rd-and-8 at the Alcorn 14, a short pass to the outside was intercepted by Adrian Portlock.
AAMU had the chance to take the lead early in the second. The series started with a 24-yard by Bentley, and the Bulldogs were later set up in the red zone. Alcorn held them to a field goal opportunity, and the 34-yard kick was missed, wide right.
Alcorn took advantage of the missed field goal and turned it into points. A 33-yard pass to freshman
Akeem McNair got it start, and a pair of runs by Duffey placed the ball at the AAMU 39. The Braves kept it on the ground, and after a 12-yard run by Duffey and a facemask penalty, Duffey capped it off with a one-yard run up the middle to put the team up 14-7 with 3:29 remaining.
The Bulldogs punched back late in the half. Taking over with just 3:22 left, four completions have them quickly moving down the field. Then, Bentley got free for a 22-yard touchdown run to even it 14-14 with 1:08 left.
With very little time remaining, Alcorn was not content with going into the half tied. A 17-yard rush by sophomore
Jonathon Bolton was followed by a 16-yard spurt by Harper. Another big run of 19-yards by Harper stopped the clock after he ran out of bounds at the AAMU 19. Alcorn then delivered a back-breaker to AAMU with a 19-yard touchdown to Pringle to give the Braves a 21-14 edge at the intermission.
On the opening drive of the second half, the Bulldogs put together a seven-play, 71-yard drive, which ended with a nine-yard rush by Bentley to tie it 21-21.
Alcorn responded with a quick drive of its own including a pair of big passes. The first was a 31-yarder to Blair, which was followed by a 42-yard bomb to Anderson on one-on-one coverage. The extra point hit the post, but Alcorn led 27-21 with 9:27 to go in the third.
Early in the fourth, the Bulldogs were on the move again after a 10-yard completion to Cameron Young near midfield. AAMU took the lead 28-27 on a 42-yard dash by Bentley down the left side.
After a pair of punts, the Braves were winning the field position battle and started a drive at the AAMU 42 after a short punt. Alcorn cashed in with a 44-yard touchdown to Pringle on 3rd-and-12 to leap back ahead 34-28 with 11:44 remaining.
The Braves had an opportunity to put the game away late in the fourth. A 20-yard rush by Harper was followed by a 15-yard rush by senior
Kevon Marsh. The Braves continued to run the ball and the clock, and were situated with a 4th-and-9 at the AAMU 15. Though, the field goal attempt that would have made it a two-possession game was missed, wide right.
AAMU took over with 2:40 left and two timeouts. On 4th-and-5 early in the drive, Glass was intercepted by Taylor and he ran it back for a touchdown, only for a flag to come out and pass interference was called. Glass threw a 24-yard pass to Ibrahim, and then again connected with Ibrahim on 4th-and-10 for 12 yards at the Alcorn 12. After an incomplete pass, the clock was stopped with four seconds. The game ended on an illegal touching call after a pass was thrown to a receiver in the back of the end zone.
NOTES
- Alcorn will become the first-ever institution to play in six consecutive SWAC Championship games.
- The Braves have beaten the Bulldogs six years in a row and tied the all-time series 12-12.
- Alcorn extended its home-winning streak to nine games. The program is 85-53 all-time in Jack Spinks-Marino Casem Stadium.
- With a fourth down conversion in the second quarter, the Braves remained as the only team in the country to carry a perfect 100 percent conversion rate on fourth down this season. It came on a 4th-and-3 at the AAMU 22 as Harper completed a five-yard pass to sophomore Juan Anthony Jr.
-
Fred McNair improved to 21-8 in his career against the SWAC. The Braves have won the SWAC East Division in all four of his years as head coach.
- Alcorn is 17-2 against the SWAC East Division over the last five seasons.
- The Braves improved to 19-0 when leading at halftime since 2017.
- Pringle has now caught 11 touchdowns this season. He's nearing the single-season school record of 14 by Tim McNair Sr. in 1994. It was his second three-touchdown performance of the year after he previously did it against Mississippi Valley State on Sept. 28.
- With four touchdowns and an interception in the game, Harper is up to 25 touchdowns and five interceptions this season. He entered the game ranked sixth in the nation in offensive efficiency, eighth in points responsible for and 17th in passing TDs.
- Alcorn's captains were seniors
Darrell Henderson,
Corey McCullough and Anderson. AAMU won the coin toss and deferred to the second half.
- Prior to the game, Alcorn honored 26 seniors in a special Senior Day ceremony.
Quoting Alcorn head coach Fred McNair
Opening Statement
"Each possession is a critical possession in this kind of game, the magnitude of it, knowing how Alabama A&M played and they've been scoring points all season. At the end there, they had a chance to win it, but we have a very relentless team. Our guys continue to fight, and that's something as a coaching staff that we wanted to instill in the young men, to keep battling, adversity is going to hit and just fight through it. I thought they did a great job tonight of bouncing back and making some stops in the second half, with us being able to go down and score points. This was a great ballgame. Hats off to Connell Maynor and that group over there, it's a phenomenal team over there at Alabama A&M."
On trying to contain Jordan Bentley
"That's the toughest running back we've faced all year. Bentley's a hard, downhill runner and he's not about giving many moves but he's just going to run the ball hard – and that's what he did tonight. We weren't able to stop him or tackle him. He had a great football game."
On what the team saw for LeCharles Pringle to be open so many times
"It just depends on the coverage. Felix did a great job of identifying what they were doing and then found Pringle when he got down the seam there. We watched film to see what they were doing and we just exploited it that way. What Pringle did, he's been doing all year. He did a great job of catching the ball and putting it in the box.
On Felix Harper's Breakout Season:
"It's a Cinderella story for him this season. Phenomenal player, we don't have to cut down the playbook for him, he's very knowledgeable. I think Coach [Pat] White does a great job with him over the course of the practice week to get him to understand the concepts and the coverages of what we need to see and ball placement. He did a really good job. He had the one pick which the defensive back made a heck of a play but he's done a great job the whole season just to become the quarterback he is after backing up and filling in for Noah [Johnson]. He's a phenomenal kid and he's always willing to learn."
On Winning Another SWAC East Division Title:
"That's a testament to this whole team and coaching staff the way they came into this season with the attitude of winning a sixth division title. It's something we focused on during the course of camp. We talked about getting back to the Celebration Bowl and the SWAC Championship, this was a stride we needed to make and win the East Division title to get to those points. The team fought hard today and overcame a lot of adversity."
On what the discussion was with the officials on the final play
"Well, what really got me was that [the officials] were going to give them an untimed down on an offensive play after the penalty was called. But they sorted through it and instant replay showed that they got it right so I guess that's the positive thing about instant replay, you get a chance to fix it if you make a mistake. I think this was one of the best games we've been a part of officiating-wise. I thought it was a real good, clean officiated ballgame."
Quoting wide receiver LaCharles Pringle
On whether this is the best game he's ever played
"Yes sir, it's probably the best one so far. It's amazing, Felix found me in the right time and my teammates made me better by getting me open. It was an exciting, hard-fought game right there. I'm glad we pulled it out."
On what was working for the offense
"We had started getting the run going which opened up the passing game. They started to go man coverage and we felt like one-on-one was where we could beat anybody. We just love to fight, we don't give up and play 60 minutes of football, that's about it."
On the team having a target on their back the whole season and still winning the division
"We know everybody's coming for us, we're trying to send these seniors out right. They've been here since we've been SWAC champions so we're trying to finish them out with one more."
On trying to clinch home field next week at Jackson State
"We're just got to treat it like a regular game. We can't go in there with a big head or overthink stuff, we just need to go in there and play our brand of football."
Quoting defensive back Juwan Taylor
On how big the win was today
"Today was very big, actually we prepared all week for this moment so it's not a surprise at the same time. We're just going to go back to the drawing board and continue to build on our mistakes from today."
On knowing the defense needed a stop in the end to win
"It's always great to step up in those situations, but as a defense we can't put ourselves in that situation. We got to take care of business in the first three quarters so it doesn't get down to the last drive and the last play."
On what AAMU was doing that gave the defense trouble
"It wasn't what they were doing, it was all what we were doing wrong. We weren't really communicating the way we should have, and we weren't really playing Alcorn football the whole game."
On playing in the SWAC Championship game
"First, we have to focus on ourselves, take it play-by-play and just execute the call. We are just going to take care of the team in front of us, Jackson State, and we're really not worried about the SWAC Championship until after that week comes."
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