Jacksonville State and UNA are currently going different directions when it comes to wins and losses. On Saturday, though, they went in the same direction, at least their offenses did, in a 47-31 Jacksonville State victory in an ASUN Conference game played at Toyota Field in Madison.

The game was played at the home field of the Rocket City Trash Pandas, which is the Double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels. Because of the configuration of the field, both offenses had to travel in the same direction. It was unique, for sure, but it worked.

“I really thought it was a neat environment,” said Jacksonville State head coach Rich Rodriguez. “I was a little leery going into it, because I’ve never played on a baseball field, but it worked out fine.”

Jacksonville State (6-1 overall, 2-0 ASUN) looked comfortable from the outset. The Gamecocks led, 21-0, after one quarter and 31-14 at halftime. They had 293 yards in offense in the first half.

UNA (1-5, 0-2) refused to go away. ShunDerrick Powell shook free for a 52-yard touchdown run early in the second half. Demarcus Lacey’s 5-yard touchdown catch from Noah Walters on the following UNA possession made the score 31-28 in favor of the Gamecocks.

Jacksonville State responded with 10 straight points, including a 60-yard run by Anwar Lewis to regain control. The Gamecocks finished with 350 yards rushing with Lewis gaining a team-high 165 yards and two touchowns. Matt LaRoche had 90 yards rushing with a touchdown and Zion Webb had a rushing touchdown and passing touchdown.

Walters was 19 of 33 for 302 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. Powell had 118 rushing yards for the Lions.

TUSKEGEE 49, CENTRAL STATE 34: It’s not often that a team allows more than 700 yards in offense and still wins the game. Yet, here we are. Central State piled up 712 yards in offense and lost the game.

How does that happen?

In this case, Tuskegee used 434 rushing yards and a monster day by running back Taurean Taylor to walk away with its fifth successive victory. Taylor, a 5-foot-7, 180-pound senior, carried the ball 21 times for 232 yards with touchdowns of 2, 10, 29 and 93 yards.

His two biggest runs came with the Golden Tigers clinging to a 35-34 lead late in the game. He raced 29 yards for the score with 4:03 remaining, capping a five-play, 80-yard drive. He followed with a game-clinching 93-yard sprint with 1:26 left. His final touchdown came two plays after an interception by Brandon Kyles.

TROY 17, TEXAS STATE 14: It wasn’t necessarily pretty and it certainly wasn’t easy but the Trojans found a way to win. The winning touchdown came with 11:45 remaining on a 23-yard pass from Jarret Doege to RaJae Johnson. From there, it was up to the Trojan defense to finish things out.

“Troy Trojans don’t run and hide,” Troy head coach Jon Sumrall said. “We fight. That’s what we do. And I think we’ve got a team of fighters. We’re going to show up and compete every day. We’re going to walk into the stadium with a fire and compete. And I think we laid it all on the line, came out on the right side of it.”

Troy played two quarterbacks – starter Gunnar Watson and Doege – and each one threw a touchdown pass. Watson’s touchdown pass opened the scoring and came on a short pass that Tez Johnson turned into a 74-yard touchdown.

The Trojans’ defense was led by linebacker Carlton Martial, who had 11 tackles and is now 41 tackles short of becoming the all-time leading tackler in NCAA history. Troy was held without a sack and only had two tackles for a loss. But the Trojans only allowed 293 yards in offense.

HUNTINGDON 38, BREVARD 14: The passing game, on both sides of the ball, was key for the Hawks in the USA South victory. Quarterback Landon Cotney threw for 292 yards and three touchdowns and the Hawks got two interceptions by Tyrell Davis and another by Tyler Jackson in the win.

Cotney was 20 of 29 passing and found his favorite target, Tyler England, eight times for 121 yards and a score.

“It’s just a natural connection with Cotney,” England said in a release by Huntingdon athletic media relations. “Cotney and I have been here all summer working hard. The extra week of preparation really helped us a lot.”

Huntingdon also ran the ball well, with Kahari McReynolds gaining 115 yards on the ground with two touchdowns.

LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE 37, FAULKNER 7: Faulkner trailed just 13-7 after Ben Anderson’s 4-yard touchdown pass to Satyler Wilson. But, No. 3 ranked Lindsey Wilson dominated the rest of the way.

Faulkner’s Jerrell Williamson had 10 tackles and the Eagles got interceptions from Jailen Clemons and Makhi Jones. But the Eagles offense managed just 163 yards.

ALABAMA STATE 24, MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE 9: Quarterback Myles Crawley powered the offense on a day that the Hornets struggled to get the running game going. Crawley was 16 of 26 for 270 yards with two interceptions and touchdown passes of 12 yards to Dylan Creech and 36 yards to Jeremiah Hixon.

The Hornets had just 76 yards on 30 carries but did get a 2-yard scoring run by Ja’Won Howell.

Mississippi Valley State had just 85 yards passing with 62 of it coming on a touchdown pass from Jamari Jones to Jacory Rankin with 14 seconds remaining.

BIRMINGHAM SOUTHERN 28, MILLSAPS 0: The Panthers led, 21-0, at halftime, on two touchdown passes and a touchdown run by quarterback Matt McClary. Jon Lewis opened the scoring with a 58-yard touchdown pass from McClary. The Birmingham-Southern quarterback then ran 12 yards for a score and found Branden Rew on a 40-yard scoring pass.

Lewis rushed for 157 yards on 26 carries and had three catches for 84 yards. The Birmingham-Southern defense had three sacks and Jimmy Anderson had an interception. Millsaps had just 60 yards rushing and were 0 for 6 on fourth down.

DELTA STATE 20, WEST ALABAMA 7: Delta State quarterback Patrick Shegog was as good as advertised with 315 yards in offense. However, the West Alabama defense still hung tough against the No. 10 ranked Statesmen.

“To hold a team like Delta State to 20 points is a big deal," said West Alabama head coach Brett Gilliland. "They made plays when they needed to and we didn't do enough to win the game and we could have.”

Davonchae Bryant and Mike Anderson each had 12 tackles for the Tigers and Trevon Stanford had 10 tackles, three tackles for loss and a pass breakup. De Mays had an interception to set up the Tigers lone touchdown, which came on a 1-yard run by quarterback Tucker Melton. 

SOUTH ALABAMA 41, LOUISIANA-MONROE 34: Apparently, the bye week worked wonders for the South Alabama offense. The Jaguars rolled up 615 yards in offense with quarterback Carter Bradley throwing for a school record 420 yards. Bradley was 25 of 33 with touchdown passes of 64, 20 and 24 yards.

South Alabama had three receivers with over 100 yards in receptions. Caullin Lacy had 12 catches for 133 yards with a touchdown, Devin Voisin had seven catches for 141 yards and Jalen Wayne had five catches for 127 yards with two touchdowns.

“We have a quarterback who is not a one-read guy,” said South Alabama coach Kane Wommack. “He goes through his progression, and we’re very multiple in the ways that we can get our receivers the ball. I thought (offensive coordinator Major Applewhite) called a tremendous game, and Carter and our receiving corps executed a tremendous game. I thought we protected well all night. It was a (heck) of a job by our offensive unit across the board.”

South Alabama also had 195 rushing yards despite leading rusher La’Damian Webb only getting one carry for seven yards. Marco Lee filled in with 93 yards on 15 carries with two touchdowns and Omni Wells added 85 yards on 17 carries.

“They were under 100 yards most of the night, but when they had to win the game, we couldn’t stop them,” said Louisiana-Monroe head coach Terry Bowden. “We had four minutes left with three timeouts and they were on their 12-yard line, but we couldn’t get them off the field. That was with their running attack. They made us miss a lot of tackles, and they really caused some problems.”

To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email steve.irvine@1819news.com.

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