Jags shut out Panthers in home opener

Box Score
After a first half that ended with a total of only three points, the Southern University football team pulled off their first win of the season by defeating the Prairie View A&M Panthers 38-0.
A modest 16,000 fans came out to see Southern win its 15th straight game over Prairie View. Panthers’ coach Henry Frazier III said his team could have won and were in the position to win, but penalties averted them from capitalizing against a Jaguars’ squad that scored 14 points in one minute during the second half.
“We had opportunities to really win the football game in my opinion,” Frazier said. “We knew we wasn’t going to have many opportunities, but we just didn’t take advantage of the few we had.”
Sophomore quarterback J.C. Lewis completed his first seven passes, and ended up completing 15 of his 19 passes in the first half, but he could not get the Jaguars in position to score other than the 29-yard field goal kicked by Breck Ackely with 1:32 left in the second quarter.
In his second start in the season, Lewis finished the game completing 19-of-28 passes for 282 yards and three touchdowns while being sacked three times.
“I missed some plays, some opportunities, but at halftime, Coach (David) Oliver came in and told me, ‘Hey, you need to pick it up. You need to start making some plays,’ ” Lewis said. “I just came out there and I was able to see some open people deep down the field and I was just able to hit them.”
Once again, the Southern rushing game suffered.
Running back Steel Adams led the Jaguars with only 15 yards at the half.
However, not much more was done afterwards. Adams finished the game with 15 yards (off one carry). Despite his two touchdowns, sophomore Larry Nichols’ 34 rushing yards did little to contribute to the Jaguars’ 51 total yards.
Wide receiver James Vernon led the receiving corps with three passes for a total of 63 yards.
Though Junior Joseph only had one catch — for 26 yards — it was his performance on special teams that led the Jaguars to another score.
After wide out Antonio Overstreet’s 18-yard touchdown reception with just over 10 minutes to play in the third quarter, a series of penalties resulted in a punt by Prairie View.
However, kicker Eric Hernandez’s punt was blocked by Joseph.
“On the punt block, that’s just an example of what can happen when everybody works together. Coach (Daryl) Daye has been doing a real great job working on our special teams,” Joseph said. “It was just a special teams effort and we are taking special teams very seriously and we’re going to get better everyday.”
Three plays later, Nichols’ 5-yard touchdown run with 7:05 left in the third quarter put the Jags up 17-0.
An interception by redshirt freshman defensive back Michael Williams positioned the Jaguars for another touchdown.
Williams, who was last week’s SWAC defensive player of the week, had seven solo tackles and 12 total tackles.
Nichols once again found the end zone on a 1-yard run to put the Jags up 24-0.
The last touchdown of the third quarter was a 51-yard pass to running back Gerard Landry with only 00:19 left on the clock.
Vernon’s 20-yard touchdown reception in the fourth set up a made point-after-attempt by Ackley and sealed the game for the Jags.
“When they came out they came out with difference stance, they started bringing a lot of blitzes, a lot of stunts,” said Panthers’ quarterback Michael Hill. “So our quarterbacks didn’t have enough time to throw the ball, there were a lot of rushed throws and a lot of miscues from the receivers and the quarterback.”
The Jaguars will play again at home Saturday at 7 p.m. against Albany State University (3-1 overall, 3-0 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference).