SU blows 14-point lead to fall in OT

SPRING BRANCH, TEXAS – Southern had all odds in favor of a sweet victory. Talent. Speed. An experienced quarterback and receiving squad. A solid team. And a 14-point lead down to the wire. Almost everything except for a plan of execution.
The Jaguars fell to Prairie View 26-23 in overtime after leading by two touchdowns Saturday afternoon at Darrell Tully Stadium.
“We let them hang around,” said Southern coach Pete Richardson. “We made too many mistakes on offense, kept giving them opportunities they hung in the game. It’s a tribute to them. They hung in there.”
The Jaguars (2-1, 1-1 SWAC), a Southwestern Athletic Conference top pick couldn’t hold off the Panthers (2-1, 1-1) attack.
For the game winning touchdown the Panthers junior running back Arnell Fontenot rushed 14 yards practically untouched into the back of the end zone and sent off a huge Panther celebration in the middle of the field for the first time beating Southern since 1971.
Moments earlier, Southern had to settle for a 27-yard field goal to try and lead 23-20.
With under 5:33 left in the game the entire pace changed for the Jaguars.
Prairie View A&M coach Henry Frazier said his team may have been down but they were not out. He chanted the saying “I Believe” to his team for motivation.
“I’ve been preaching that from day one,” said Frazier. “We got a thing we say inside the locker room ‘I Believe’, and normally you don’t use ‘I’ with ‘team’ but I try to teach individuals ‘I Believe’, and I say ‘We Believe’. I want you to look in the mirror and say ‘I believe’ and if you believe in this game plan and the things we do off the field then good things are going to happen.”
With that said, the Panthers powered two quick offensive possessions and stunned the Jaguars with a late comeback, Fontenot’s 3-yard game tying touchdown to score 20-20 with the last 18 seconds of regulation taking a total time of 1:53 and 33 yards.
Like, the game tying TD, the Panthers turnaround came down to one of two frightening fumbles off snaps at 5:33 left in the fourth quarter, and the Panthers’ defensive tackle Derrick Williams recovered a fumble by Southern quarterback J.C. Lewis. The Panthers running back Chris Gibson scored off a 1-yard rush to push the score 20-13.
After the Panthers scored 6-0 in the first quarter and a few possession changes the Jaguars took over and never trailed. The Jags went on to dominate the third quarter and part of the fourth leading 20-6.
But throughout the entire game the offense seemed to have problems with snaps and its aerial game.
“It was my fault,” Lewis said. “I just missed the snap and it was one of the many mistakes we made today.”
Lewis came into the game with a 60.6 percent completion rating 558 yards on 43 of 71 passes seven touchdowns and no interceptions. Saturday he finished 16-of-26 passes for 140 yards, with an uncharacteristic two interceptions, the first one came on the first play of the game caught by Edward Moore at the 48-yard line. Prairie View took that and converted the drive into a touchdown.
“We had problems on the snaps and I think we were inconsistent there because we had a freshman in trying to get some breaks, the other kid dehydrated,” Richardson said.
“We had a problem in so many spots. Seems like we’d put a person in, made some mistakes… (PVAM) they hung in there and won the game.”
Last season Southern slaughtered PVAM 38-0 in Baton Rouge, La.