JSU tops Alcorn, wins East|[11/18/07]
Published 12:00 am Sunday, November 18, 2007
JACKSON — Jimmy Oliver won a state and a national championship in his freshman season at Pearl River Community College. He can now add a Southwestern Athletic Conference Eastern Division title to his resume.
The Jackson State senior quarterback threw for 245 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another 111 yards as the Tigers finally defeated their arch-nemesis Alcorn State, 31-19, before 32,500 fans Saturday in the annual Capital City Classic at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium.
“This one feels better because it’s at the next level,” Oliver said. He was named the game’s most valuable offensive player, leading the Tigers (7-4, 7-2 SWAC) to 24 straight points after Alcorn had led 6-0.
“I came in here hoping to turn things around for this program. Alcorn has always been a big rivalry for Jackson State, but now we’ve beaten them and we get to go on to play for a championship,” Oliver said.
The Tigers will meet Grambling State for the overall SWAC title on Dec. 15 at Legion Field in Birmingham. For Alcorn State, the loss ended a miserable season at 2-8.
Braves coach Dr. Johnny Thomas said his team was ready to play but could not overcome what has been a season-long problem of critical mistakes at the wrong time. Up 6-0, Alcorn was inside the JSU 20 with a golden chance to add to its lead. Instead, a fumble wiped away the chance and any momentum Alcorn may have had.
“Some things worked well for us offensively in the beginning and then we fumbled the football. It went downhill from there. We couldn’t recapture it (the momentum). It was the turning point in the game,” Thomas said.
JSU capitalized on the fumble by driving 83 yards in 15 plays. Oliver kept the march alive with a 12-yard scramble for a first down, on which he retreated backward and then escaped heavy pressure. The score came on a 1-yard run by Lavarus Giles. Eric Perri’s kick put the Tigers ahead to stay at 7-6 with 2:38 left in the first quarter.
“The turnover early really hurt them emotionally. It took a lot out of them,” Jackson State coach Rick Comegy said.
The Tigers were a different team defensively afterward as well. Alcorn quarterback Tony Hobson, who threw for 160 yards in the opening quarter, struggled afterward until the fourth quarter.
“They had done a good job of dragging a guy back after our coverage guys had left the zone. We went to more man coverage after that and started getting after the quarterback more,” Comegy said.
The only score in the second quarter was Perri’s 19-yard field goal to make it 10-6 with 11:56 left.
Oliver led the Tigers on an 82-yard drive to start the second half. He found Jaymar Johnson for a 29-yard TD pass to make it 17-6 with 12:18 left in the third quarter.
Alcorn did not get anything started until the fourth quarter when Hobson got them down to the JSU 18. The Braves lined up for a 34-yard field goal but faked it. The pass fell incomplete and with it went any last chance of extending the school’s winning streak over JSU to five games.
On the next play, Giles broke loose for a game-clinching 82-yard TD run. He finished with 146 yards on 21 carries.
“Their linebacker tried a little arm tackle and I came right through it. They couldn’t tackle very well,” Giles said.
Hobson managed to sandwich a pair of TD tosses of 19 and 7 yards to Nate Hughes in between an Oliver touchdown pass of 24 yards to Terance Jones, but the Braves never got close again.
Hobson finished 22-of-39 for 350 yards. Emmanuel Arceneaux had seven catches for 119 yards, including a 29-yard TD pass to cap the Braves’ opening possession for a 6-0 lead.