HOUSTON, Texas – Dray Joseph connected with Lee Doss for a 16-yard touchdown pass to hand Southern University a 34-27 double overtime victory over Jackson State on Saturday in the 2013 Toyota SWAC Football Championship inside Reliant Stadium.
SU (9-4) wins its third Southwestern Athletic Conference championship game in school history.
After SU scored, during the ensuing drive, Tommy Gooden stepped out of bounds to negate what would have been a five-yard touchdown pass from Clayton Moore to help JSU (7-4) even the game.
Both teams failed to score in the first overtime.
SWAC Championship Defensive MVP, Anthony Balancier, intercepted Moore to end JSU’s first attempt in overtime. He led SU’s defense with 11 tackles with a forced fumble and two break ups.
Gregory Pittman’s 37-yard field goal attempt was blocked by Conard Brown, keeping the Tigers’ hopes alive.
Joseph, offensive MVP, finished 27-of-46 for 337 yards passing with three touchdowns, including a pair to Willie Quinn, to power the Jaguars.
Joseph hit Quinn for a 34-yard touchdown to give Southern a 10-0 lead. After the teams traded field goals, Moore went 5-for-5 leading the Tigers 73 yards in just 54 seconds. He then followed with a 25-yard touchdwon pass to Zachary Pendleton to trim the lead 13-10 at halftime.
Moore completed 21-of-42 with two interceptions and a paor of touchdowns. Pendleton hauled in six cathces for 97 yards.
Joseph and Quinn connected to give Southern a 20-10 lead with 4:59 left in the third quarter.
Doss and Quinn combined for 267 yards receiving. Doss collected 10 receptions and Quinn gathered seven.
JSU retaliated with with 14 points when Moore hit Pendleton again for a 28-yard strike before Antonio Sutton collected an 11-yard fumble recovery to take the lead, 24-27.
The Jaguars responded when Darrius Coleman capped a 13-play drive with a one-yard touchdown run to give SU a 27-24 lead with 4:47 remaining.
Ryan Deising hit a 37-yard field goal for the Tigers as time expired to send the game into overtime.
For SU, Lenard Tillery collected a game high 118 rushing yards on 16 carries with a 7.4 average.
Ryan Griffin spotlighted JSU’s defense with a game high 15 tackles including eight solo and two for a loss.
SU finished with 512 total offensive yards and JSU closed out the game with 381.
CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES
• Southern wins its third championship game title
• The game marked the first double-overtime contest in the championship
• The West Division now holds a 12-3 mark over the East Division in the championship
• Southern wins its third championship game title
• Dray Joseph’s 46 attempts now rank third all-time in the championship game
• Jackson State becomes the first team to drop back-to-back championship games
• The contest marked the first championship game played in Houston, Texas
• Southern breaks the all-time series tie with Jackson State and now holds the series at 30-29
• The 34-27 combined score – 71 is the third largest of all-time
Courtesy: SWAC.org
