LORMAN, Miss. – Junior quarterback
Felix Harper threw six touchdown passes as the Alcorn State University football program scored the final 21 points of the game to shake-off Mississippi Valley State 45-19 Saturday evening at Jack Spinks-Marino Casem Stadium.
Alcorn (3-2, 2-0 SWAC) led MVSU (0-4, 0-1 SWAC) 24-19 midway through the third quarter when Harper connected with junior
LeCharles Pringle for a nine-yard touchdown. Felix then found senior
Chris Blair for a 52-yard touchdown, and Pringle again for an eight-yard touchdown to put the game away.
The Braves won despite turning the ball over five times, all on fumbles. They outgained the Delta Devils 549-307 in total yards, including 396-162 in passing.
Harper, the reigning HBCU National Player of the Week and SWAC Offensive Player of the Week winner, fired away for a career-high 396 yards. He was 21-for-30 in the air.
Three of his touchdowns went to Pringle, who ended with six catches for 86 yards. Harper also hooked up with Blair for a pair of touchdowns and 144 yards. Senior
Raidarious Anderson returned from injury to haul in 81 yards, and sophomore Juan Anthony Jr. recorded 52 receiving yards and a touchdown.
On the ground, sophomore
Trey Turner ran for a team-high 64 yards. Freshman
Niko Duffey ended with 54 rushing yards.
Defensively, junior
Qwynnterrio Cole and junior
Daimen Anderson tallied a team-high nine tackles apiece. The Braves notched 9.0 tackles for a loss, including 1.5 from senior
Solomon Muhammad.
MVSU was guided by Dejerric Bryant who threw for 162 yards and two touchdowns, and rushed for a game-high 92 yards and a touchdown. Tracy Thompkins wrapped-up 12 tackles and also forced and recovered a fumble.
Alcorn will hit the road next weekend when it travels to Alabama State for a 6 p.m. kick-off. The Braves are 23-19 all-time against the Hornets.
PLAY-BY-PLAY SUMMARY
After both teams punted on their opening drives, the Braves got on the board on their second series. It started with a 16-yard pass to Anderson, and followed with a 23-yard reception by Blair. Alcorn capped it with a 19-yard strike to Pringle to lead 7-0 at the 9:57 mark.
The Braves extended it to 14-0 early in the second. After a 17-yard run by Anthony, Harper threw a bomb to Blair as he was open behind the secondary and raced to a 69-yard touchdown.
MVSU punched back midway threw the third. The Delta Devils took advantage of a fumble deep in Alcorn's territory, and scored on a one-yard rush by Bryant to cut it to 14-7 with 7:31 remaining in the half.
Another fumble by the Braves setup MVSU at the Alcorn 34. However, the Delta Devils got pushed back after a bad snap cost them 15 yards, and eventually had to punt it away.
Alcorn put together a seven-play, 70-yard drive near the end of the half. It started with a 13-yard rush by Pringle, and then receptions of 16 yards and 13 yards to Anderson and Anthony, respectively, moved it to the MVUS 26. The Braves scored on a 26-yard strike to Anthony to go back up 21-7 with 3:03 to go.
The Braves were in line to get the ball back with just under a minute left in the half as MVSU punted it away, but the return was fumbled on the hop and recovered by the Delta Devils. MVSU carried momentum into the half after cashing in with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Johnny Wilson with seven seconds left. The extra point hit the post, but the Delta Devils trailed 21-13 at the break.
The Alcorn defense started the second half strong. After a three-and-out, MVSU decided to go for it on 4th-and-1 at its own 44-yard line, but the rush was stuffed by Anderson and sophomore
Calvontay Key.
The Braves took advantage of the great field position and tacked on a 33-yard field goal by senior
Corey McCullough to lead 24-13 with 10:46 left in the third.
The Delta Devils answered with a long 10-play, 76-yard drive that ended with a touchdown. The scoring play was a nine-yard pass to Marcus Kidd to make it a 24-19 game with 7:17 to go.
From there, it was all Alcorn. The Braves slowly moved down the field on the ensuing drive, and scored on a 39-yard pass to Pringle as he broke tackles on his way to the end zone. It upped Alcorn's edge to 31-19 with 3:46 remaining.
The Braves struck again at the end of the third quarter. After an MVSU punt, Alcorn scored on its very first play as Harper again found Blair deep for a 52-yarder to increase the advantage to 38-19.
Alcorn's final score came with 3:57 to go in the fourth. After a five runs by Duffey and six rushes by Turner, the Braves scored on an eight-yard pass to Pringle.
The Delta Devils nearly scored at the very end, but ran out of time. They were set up 1st-and-goal at the Alcorn 3, but after an incomplete pass, a one-yard rush and another incomplete pass, the clock hit 00:00.
NOTES
- Alcorn extended its home winning-streak to six games, which carried over from last year. The Braves improved to 82-53 all-time in Jack Spinks-Marino Casem Stadium.
- The Braves posted their seventh consecutive win over MVSU and lead the all-time series 46-15-1. Alcorn has outscored MVSU 363-97 over the last seven meetings.
- Alcorn is now 15-2 against SWAC East Division opponents over the last five seasons.
- The Braves have scored exactly 45 points in all three of their home games this year.
- Alcorn head coach
Fred McNair improved to 18-7 in his career against the SWAC, and 13-6 in night games.
- The Braves are now 16-0 when leading at halftime since 2017.
- Alcorn has outscored the opposition 49-24 in the fourth quarter this year. It came after they outscored the opposition 102-42 in the fourth quarter in 2018.
- Alcorn successfully converted a fourth down attempt in the fourth quarter to remain perfect on the season. Coming into the game, the Braves were one of seven teams in the country to carry a perfect 100 percent fourth down conversion rate.
- Harper's career night topped his career night from last weekend. His 396 passing yards were more than his 280 against PVAMU. His six touchdown passes were also a personal-record.
- Blair's 144 receiving yards bested his previous high of 92 set against MVSU on Sept. 22, 2018. It was the second multi-touchdown game of his career.
- Pringle has hauled in 230 receiving yards and four touchdowns over the last two games.
- Muhammad, the reigning SWAC Defensive Player of the Week winner, finished with seven tackles, two pass break-ups and 1.5 tackles for a loss.
- McCullough, the reigning SWAC Special Teams Player of the Week winner, knocked in his 38th career field goal, which are the most in Alcorn history. He also punted three times for 134 yards, and all three of his punts laded inside the 20 including one at the one-yard line.
- Alcorn entered the week at No. 3 in the national HBCU Top-10, and also received votes in the STATS FCS Top-25 Poll.
- Alcorn's captains were Blair, McCullough and senior
Darrell Henderson. The Braves won the coin toss and received first.
Quoting Alcorn head coach Fred McNair
On the message at halftime after a turnover-filled first half
"I told them that we just played the worst half of football ever - turnovers, execution-wise, giving up points on defense and just the whole outlook of it. We didn't play a good half of football in the first half so my statement was just plain and simple, go out and finish. We went out and executed a whole lot better in the second half. The guys responded very well and did an outstanding job."
On managing expectations each game
"That's the biggest thing, playing up to the expectations and they know the expectations are very high. These guys are capable of playing a whole lot better than they did tonight. These guys just have to continue to improve over the course of the week and do their job is the main thing. We talk about it all the time about doing your own job. If they continue to do that, continue to improve and minimize the mistakes that they're making then the sky's the limit for this team."
On Felix Harper's impressive first two starts
"I've been through this quarterback thing before since I've been coaching here. It's always happened during the course of our quarterback's senior year - they get hurt their senior year and the next guy that's backing him up he steps right in to play exceptionally well. I think right now Felix is riding on a really good high and he's done an excellent job these last two ballgames running the offense the way it should be ran and putting points up. You can't ask for anything better than what he's doing right now leading this football team."
On Mississippi Valley State's performance
"Those guys play very hard. They exhaust a lot of energy and play extremely hard. I told their defensive coordinator that they play very hard and we knew coming in that we were playing a football team that plays exceptionally hard so we had to be prepared. I thought the first half was kind of slow in what we did and we made some adjustments on offense and were able to score some points."
Quoting quarterback Felix Harper
On what's working right now
"First, I want to thank God for giving me this opportunity, also the coaches for giving me the opportunity and it starts in practice. Day-in and day-out we put in hard work and it transfers to the field. I thank the offensive line for giving me time to get to my receivers and to the receivers for making plays for me. We just work hard each and every day, it translates to game time where we are victorious."
On his relationship with Noah
"It's great, he's taught me a lot over the years I've been here. The main thing he's said is keep energy because we're going to fight through adversity throughout the game. Sometimes we make mistakes but we always say keep the energy going and once I keep the energy going, the team looks at me."
On having so many playmaking receivers
"It makes things easy, it makes plays for me and makes me look good at the end of the day. I appreciate them for working hard with me after practice."
On thriving despite being smaller than a prototypical quarterback
"I feel like size doesn't matter, it's all about how hard you work each and every day, and the time you put in. I've been playing since I was a little kid so the work ethic that Noah and I have is very good and it translates to the field."
Quoting wide receiver LeCharles Pringle:
On his touchdown during the first drive of the game
"Just effort and taking advantage of the opportunity given to me, my teammates helped me out with a good block by Ray [Raidarious] Anderson and I just found myself in the endzone."
On running the hurry-up offense
"We've gotten faster this year than we were last year. That's the objective especially when teammates work together to hurry up and lineup on the ball."
On Coach McNair's message at halftime
"Ball security, we had the ball out wide so it was easy for them to knock it out. He just told us to keep it tucked tight and we'll be fine."
On MVSU playing the game hard
"They always play us hard. The're a tough team but we just happened to pull it out today."
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