Starting fast and finishing…
It’s something the Southern Jaguar football team has struggled to do all season long, and it showed in their 31-30 loss to Alabama State Saturday on Senior Night for the Jaguars.
Southern’s Southwestern Athletic Conference title hopes ended after there 49-29 loss to Prairie View A&M, and since then the Jaguars have been trying to play the spoiler role.
They nearly spoiled Alabama A&M’s title hopes last week going into overtime losing 24-23, and in their game against Alabama State (7-3, 7-2 SWAC) the Jaguars wanted to spoil their hopes as well since the hornets were at the time tied for first place in the Eastern Division.
Although SU (3-7, 2-6 SWAC) pulled a 60-yard fake double reverse pass that led to their first score from quarterback Dray Joseph to senior wide receiver Charles Hawkins, Southern dug themselves into a deep 28-7 hole.
Dray finished the game with 349 yards passing and along with three touchdowns and one interception.
Before halftime SU had an impressive 92-yard drive that led to a three yard Touchdown pass from Joseph to wide receiver Lee Doss who finished the game with a team high 12 receptions for 94 yards and two touchdowns.
“We know as a team that we start off slow and when the second half comes we start to make big plays,” Doss said.
And in the second half stood true when Hawkins returned the opening kickoff 99 yards to bring the score within seven.
Hawkins, who was a walk-on turned starter finished his final home game with five receptions for 94 yards and 2 touchdowns including the kickoff return.
“I just wanted to go out and do it for him,” Joseph said about his last game with Hawkins. “The whole week we sat down and talked about doing it for each other, this my last time playing in A.W. Mumford with him and I wanted to go out with a bang.”
And the Jaguars did go out with a bang, with only 3:05 left in the game Southern went 74 yards and scored off a six-yard touchdown pass from Joseph to Doss with only 20seconds left.
Down by one the Jaguars elected to go for a two-point conversion that would give Southern the win instead of the tie that would have sent them into overtime.
Dray’s pass fell onto the turf sealing the win for the Hornets.
“It’s a gut decision,” said Odums. “I felt that we had put so much effort into it, our offense ‘did a good job’ of driving down there and they were hot and I felt like putting the ball in our quarterbacks hand who had played well the whole game.”
Alabama State running backs Malcolm Cyrus and Isaiah Crowell combined for 229 yards rushing and two touchdowns in the Hornets victory.
“I told my players to make sure that you can hold your head up high because the effort you gave and the fight that you showed is the reason why we know this program is headed in the right direction,” Odums said.
Southern will take the field 12 days from now trying to end a six-year losing stint to a Grambling State (1-9, 0-8 SWAC) team that is dealing with their worst record ever in their storied history in the 39th annual State Farm Bayou Classic Saturday Nov. 24 at 1:30 p.m. in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
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Jags’ rally falls short against ASU
December 1, 2012
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