Tillery Breaks Record as Southern Defeats Alcorn State

The Southern Jaguars had a test coming into this game as they faced Alcorn State, a match up that usually produces good games year after year, as Alcorn State is known to field good teams. This year it was the jaguars that came out of the game victorious as they snapped a five game losing streak against Alcorn when Southern won the game 41-33. This game was also a record setting game for Southern, as Lenard Tillery became the Southwestern Athletic Conference rushing leader. Tillery received this honor with 4,132 yards of career rushing so far; this passed up the previous record holder Destry Wright, who played at Jackson State from 1997-1999.

For the game, Lenard Tillery had 195 rushing yards on 24 carries and 3 touchdowns in his record breaking performance. This also contributed to the 257 total yards of rushing by southern. Howard for the jaguars threw 2 touchdowns on the evening for 195 yards, he completed 12 of his 30 passes and had no interceptions.

Tillery started out the game strong as he had a 12 yard run in for a touchdown early in the first quarter. Ryan Albuquerque made a field goal later in the quarter to give the jaguar 10 points in the first quarter, but Alcorn State would score some points of their own, having two touchdowns, one of them had a failed two point conversion attempt follow the score. At the end of the first, the score of the game was 10-13. In the second quarter southern scored 14 unanswered points as Howard completed his two touchdown passes this quarter. One of those was a 33 yard pass to Curtlan Williams and the other touchdown was a 10 yard pass to Dillon Beard.

In the third quarter the Jaguars began to extend the lead even further as Lenard Tillery made two rushing touchdowns, one of those was from a 63 yard run. Alcorn State also scored in the third quarter and when the quarter came to an end, the score was 38-20.

The fourth quarter had Alcorn State trying to come back as Footman scored a rushing touchdown early in the quarter, but a turnover later that quarter kept Alcorn State from gaining momentum and once the clock struck zero, the jaguars proved to be too much for the braves and the final score was 41-33. Turnovers played against Alcorn State as quarterback Footman had two interceptions and there were also two other turnovers bringing the total to 4.

The Southern jaguars currently are undefeated in the SWAC conference, a position they still share with Grambling State. The jaguars also have the potential to close out the season undefeated if their level of play keeps up. Southern begins November play against Texas Southern, and then they face Prairie View A&M in what should be an interesting game.