Southern Rallies to a Win Over Jackson State

Out in Mississippi, the Southern Jaguars travelled to play the Jackson State Tigers in a Saturday night game that would prove to be a hard fought game for both teams and a great win for Southern. Once the game had concluded, the Southern Jaguars came out victorious with a score of 28-24. The jaguars came to this game from a long term of being off due to the way the schedule was made, the last game the jaguars played was on September 24^th. The jaguars came into this game well rested and ready to play against a SWAC team that is also competitive and was also ready to play.

The jaguars started well and scored early in the game when Lenard Tillery ran for a 6 yard score after about 3 minutes of play. The remainder of the first quarter produced some back and forth play from both sides of the ball until at the end of the quarter when Jackson State made a field goal to being the score to 7-3. There were a few turnovers from both teams in the first and second quarter that led to some competitive play.

With a few minutes into the second quarter, Tillery ran in another score to put southern up 14-3. Tillery had two touchdowns during the night and 127 yards. Shortly after there was a touchdown pass made by Jackson State to close the gap again, then southern quarterback Austin Howard passed to Menard for a 10 yard touchdown to put southern up 21-10. Howard had a grest game throwing for 288 yards and 2 touchdowns.

At the end of the first half, Southern made a score that got called back, then halftime began with the score at 21-17. Southern also led the night in total yards, having 429 in the game, they also led in time of possession. Jackson State took the lead early in the third quarter from a running touchdown; then later in the quarter, Howard made a short pass to Menard to put the Jaguars ahead again at 28-24. The teams would go scoreless in the fourth quarter which helped southern secure their victory.

The defense of southern played a great deal in keeping that lead late in the game and coming out with the win. The Jaguars return home next week when they take on Arkansas Pine Bluff, then they travel to Alcorn State the following week. At this point in the season the Jaguars are undefeated in conference play along with Grambling University.