NORMAL, Ala. –It is a good thing for the Southern University Jaguars football team that headcoach Pete Richardson has been on staff for 12 seasons, otherwise he probablywouldn’t be able to handle the heart-stopping comebacks the Jaguars have beendishing out.
“I’ve been herea long time, but the last couple of weeks have been up and down,” Richardsonsaid. “The kids are learning andplaying hard so that’s all you can expect.”
For the thirdtime this season the Jaguars had to battle back in the fourth quarter to pulloff a win. This game was no different than the first two.
At Louis CrewsStadium on a cloudy Saturday evening that drizzled most of the time the Jaguarsdefeated the Alabama A&M Bulldogs 33-24, Saturday in front of a crowd of19,890.
The Jag’ssenior quarterback Thomas Rick’s 1-yard touchdown run lifted Southern 26-22with 2:35 left in regulation. Toadd insult to injury, a little more than 20 seconds later Ricks play wasfollowed by senior defensive back Ahmad Treaudo who caught an interception fora 28-yard touchdown return to help bury the Bulldogs at their Homecominggame.
“It was crazyout there; I just knew that I had to scramble to get free use my speed andthat’s just what I did,” Treaudo said. “I just played hard for 60 minutes itwas in my heart that I wanted to make a play and it came true for me. It wasthe defense thing, but offense was struggling so we had to hold our own groundand get the job done.”
Treaudo had acareer and game high three interceptions for 28-yards.
“We made someplays on defense, but we’ve got to get more consistency on both sides of theball,” Richardson said. “We had anumber of opportunities that we blew but we hung in there and made the playsthat we had to in the second half.”
The Jaguars(4-2, 3-0 Southwestern Athletic Conference) started to give up a 19-point leadwith 4:22 left in the half when Alabama A&M (3-3, 3-1 SWAC) seniordefensive back Jamerson Baker collected the Bulldogs first two points off ablocked field goal. Southernstayed scoreless until the Ricks touchdown. The Bulldogs took its one and only lead of the night at 8:14left in the fourth quarter with a 40-yard field goal by sophomore kicker Jose’Osorio, that left the Jaguars with no other option but to battle back.
“This is a bigvictory for us,” Richardson said. ”Our goal is to win the SWAC Championship and win one game at atime. We want to control our owndestiny so we don’t have to depend on anybody else.”
Compared tolast weeks Southern versus Alabama State game Ricks went 24 of 38 for a careerhigh 407-yards and five touchdowns and lead the Jaguars come back from one ofthose fourth quarter deficits. Southern came from behind 21-points. Ricks struggled in the Alabama A&M match up finishing 13of 26 for 237-yards, he threw two interceptions and one touchdown.
“AlabamaA&M came with everything they had, the defensive front put pressure on meall night,” Ricks said. ” Wefought back, our offensive line they’re a veteran line and they stuck they’reheads in it and gave me time to make a play and we made the plays to get usback into the game.”
The Bulldogsjunior quarterback Johnny Keith finished 17 of 40 for 242-yards and threw fourinterceptions and two touchdowns. The first hope of the Bulldogs getting a score on the boards was a26-yard field goal at 11:33 in the second quarter by Osorio, which wasdenied. Osorio kicked the ball andit bounced off his own teammate back.
“When you playa good team like Southern and you make the mistakes we made, you’re probablygoing to come up on the short end of the stick,” said Alabama A&M headcoach Anthony Jones. “I think wemade some mistakes that they capitalized on.”
Within thefirst 10 seconds of game play Southern senior defensive back Kevin Moffetreturned a 77-yard kick return for the touchdown.
