The Braves racked up 410 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns in tonight’s 56-16 victory against the defending SWAC Champs, Southern University.
Both teams were unsuccessful on their first drives but Southern was first to get in the scoring column on a 55-yard touchdown from Austin Howard to Justin Morgan.
Down 7-0, the Braves offense marched 82 yards down the field and capped off the drive with a 35-yard pass from John Gibbs, Jr. to LaDarrien Davis to tie the game at 7-7.
Ragsdale scored the second touchdown of the day on a 12-yard run to put the Braves ahead, 14-7 with just over one minute into the second quarter.
Senior fullback Alondrea Young scored for the first time this season on a 6-yard pass from Gibbs. The Braves went ahead 21-7 with 9:34 to play in the second quarter.
The Braves began to separate themselves from Southern when Gibbs found his way to the end zone, scampering for 23 yards to give the Braves a 28-7 lead.
Southern would score nine consecutive points to cut the lead to 28-16 before the half.
After the break, the Braves scored at the 7:11 mark in the third quarter to extend their lead to 35-16.
Anthony Williams III had a huge game scoring the next two touchdowns for the Braves from 45 and one-yard out to give the Braves a 49-16 lead.
Junior Josh Ivery finished the Jaguars off with a 12-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter.
Williams III recorded a career-high 151 yards on 17 carries and scored two touchdowns. Ragsdale posted a career-high 125 yards and one touchdown.
Gibbs completed 14-of-21 passes for 224 yards and one touchdown while Zerick Rollins caught four passes for 99 yards.
Hopson had this to say about today’s victory over Southern:
“I thought we ran the ball pretty well,” said Hopson. “We really executed on offense. Defensively, I thought we played at a fast and physical pace, which is what we had to do to defeat the defending SWAC champions.”
Despite the one-sided win, Hopson said that the number of fumbles were a problem that the Braves need to fix immediately.
“We played aggressive, but we still need to stop all of the turnovers.”
Courtesy: alcornsports.com