Ohio Valley Conference

Jacksonville State 22, Southeast Missouri 17
Jacksonville State defeated Southeast Missouri, 22-17, to win the Ohio Valley Confernce title and the automatic bid in the NCAA Divison I-AA playoffs.

The Gamecocks scored first on a 42-yard fumble return by Dexter Sistrunk and added a 51-yard field goal by Steven Lee for the 10-0 halftime lead. A 76 yard pass from Andrew Goodenough to Brandon Amick put Southeast on the one-yard line in the first series of the second half and Bobby Dorsainvil scored to make it a 10-7 game.

Ralph Jenkins added to Jax State's lead with a 15-yard TD run on an end around, but the PAT failed and the Gamecocks led 16-7. Derek Kutz kicked a 21-yard field goal to close the gap to 16-10 late in the third quarter.

The Gamecocks seemingly put the game away with an 11-play 75 yard drive that ended with Oscar Bonds scoring on a 22-yard run with 1:39 remaining to make it a 22-10 lead.

Southeast came right back behind the passing of Andrew Goodenough who completed 27-39 passes for 407 yards and one TD. He drove the Indians 65 yards in just 54-seconds with the touchdown on a 20-yard pass to Amick.

Kory Champman had 22 carries for 93 yards to lead the Gamecock ground game that produced 250 yards. Southeast led in total offense 490-yards to 318 yards.

Eastern Kentucky 27, Tennessee Tech 14
Eastern Kentucky University’s football Colonels put 21 first quarter points on the scoreboard and then held on to defeat Tennessee Tech University’s Golden Eagles, 27-14, Saturday to finish the 2003 season 7-5 overall and, in the process, secure the Colonels’ 26th consecutive winning season and 31st consecutive non-losing season.

EKU also won its last four games, all in the Ohio Valley Conference, to finish the league schedule at 6-2 and by itself in second place in the final standings. Jacksonville State, 7-1 in OVC play, won the OVC championship and the outright bid to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs Saturday by beating Southeast Missouri, 22-17, in Cape Girardeau, MO.

“It was a lot of fun out there today,” said EKU head football coach Danny Hope. “We took some chances. We weren’t afraid to go for it a couple of times on fourth down. We were going to pull everything we had to win this game.

“Our motivation this week and for the last few weeks has been to continue the legacy of winning football seasons at Eastern and not be a bump in the road. And this team hung together in some tough times and was able to do that.”

EKU put together a four-play, 31-yard drive after Colonel linebacker Justen Rivers caused a fumble by TTU quarterback Joey Bailey that was recovered by EKU tackle Josue Cineas on the opening series of the game. Junior quarterback Matt Guice took the last five yards on an option play with 10:49 left in the game, but in the process, was lost for the remainder of the game with a re-injury of his throwing hand.

Guice was replaced by sophomore quarterback Adam Ellis who led the Colonels’ attack the rest of the way. He finished the game 12-19 passing for 121 yards and a TD, an 11-yard strike to tight end Brian Sprinkel with 1:21 left in the first quarter. He also had 10 rushes for a plus 14 yards.

“Adam Ellis did a great job today,” said Hope who is completing his first year as the Colonels’ head coach. “My hat is off to him. He’s an excellent worker. For him to lead this team today is no surprise to me.”

In between the Guice and Sprinkel TD’s, Ellis took the ball four yards to paydirt with 8:28 left in the opening quarter.

“I thought our defense was the difference-maker today,” said Hope. “We knew going in, with the wind blowing strongly, that the battle of field position would be the difference in the game.”

Senior free safety Donell Allison led the Colonels in tackles vs. the Golden Eagles with 14 hits, followed closely by junior linebacker Justen Rivers with 13 and junior end Chad Dewberry with 11. Rivers also had a tackle for loss, 1.5 sacks and a caused fumble, while Dewbery had two tackles for loss.

Fifteen Colonel seniors went out on a happy note, including placekicker Adam Smith who hit 2-3 field goals and all three extra points. His second field goal with 10:18 left set a new career mark for Smith when he booted it through from 54 yards out, just three yards shy of the EKU record for longest field goal of 57 set by Dale Dawson in 1986.

“He has had an unbelievable end to his senior year. He has really kicked the ball well,” said Hope. “He was slamming the ball in practice all week. That’s the reason I didn’t hesitate to put him in there for that long one.

“That last field goal put the game out of reach. Adam’s got a big time leg. He can play at the next level with his leg.”

Senior tailback Terry Ennis, who last week became the 15th runner in school history to eclipse the 2,000-yard rushing mark, ran for 104 yards in 17 carries vs. Tech. Junior tailback C.J. Hudson added 50 yards and Aaron Murray totaled 27 rushing yards.

“We felt like we needed a physical game with the run to open up some other opportunities,” said Hope. “When we needed someone to turn to today with the running game, we turned to Terry. He had a great senior year and we’re really going to miss him and other senior runningback Aaron Murray.”

Both teams finished the game with the same amount of total offense – 344 yards.


Samford 17, Eastern Illinois 14
Quarterback Ray Nelson threw for 279 yards including a third quarter 35 yard touchdown pass to Efrem Hill to lead Samford University to a 17-14 Ohio Valley Conference victory over Eastern Illinois University in the season finale for both teams.

Samford (7-4/5-3) scored twice in the second quarter on a 13 yard run by D.J. Stencil and a 45 yard field goal by Ty Neil to take a 10-0 halftime lead.

Eastern drove 65 yards in nine plays to score on a seven yard run by quarterback Andrew Harris to cut the lead to 10-7.

But on the next series Samford came right back to drive 53 yards in five plays culminating with Nelson connecting in the endzone with Hill, who set an OVC single season pass reception record with 92 catches.

He had 10 receptions for 151 yards in Saturday’s win.

Eastern cut the lead to 17-14 on a 31 yard pass from Harris to Jermaine Mobley with 13:54 left in the game.

The Panthers drove the Samford 44 within the last three minutes and completed a fourth down pass for a first down but a holding penalty erased the first down, and Eastern was forced to punt. Samford ran out the clock to end the game.

Samford had 408 yards total offense to 321 for Eastern, which forced three Bulldog turnovers but were victimized by eight penalties.


Tennessee State 35, Murray State 10
Tennessee State rode the running of junior running back Charles, Anthony, timely passing, and a strong defensive effort in rolling to a 35-10 victory over host Murray State to secure a winning season as the Tigers wrapped up the 2003 campaign.

The victory gives the Tigers a 7-5 overall mark and 5-3 Ohio Valley Conference record. TSU, picked to finish seventh in the OVC after 2-10 and 1-5 marks last year, is the OVC's most-improved team over last season. Murray State, picked to finish second, wraps up the campaign at 4-7 and 3-5.

"It is a great win to close the season," said Tiger head coach James Reese. We are going to miss our (17) seniors and we wanted them to go out with a victory.

"The guys had fun out there today and got the job done. It is a positive way for us to go into the off-season and began our work for next year. We had a lot of guys come through with big games, but you can't say enough about the effort that Charles had today."

Anthony rushed for a career-high 194 yards and scored one TD. He tied the school record of 38 attempts in a game. Darron Davis also had 38 rushed in a game against Ausitn Peay during the 1993 season.

TSU finished the game with 386 yards of total offense. Senior C.J.Johnson, already the OVC and school's all-time leader in receiving yardage had scoring catches on two of his three receptions in the game. Johnson fell short by six reception of tying Mike Jones all-time career mark of 200 receptions.

The Tiger defense held MSU to 227 yards of total offense and did not allow any points until the second half. The Racers lone TD was set up by a Tiger fumble late in the third period.

TSU recorded five quarterbacks sacks on the day. Senior safety Ahmed Safeullah had six solo among seven total stops. Ten different Tigers had tackles for losses.

Tennessee State got the scoring underway as Bryson Rosser hooked up with C.J. Johnson on a 57-yard scoring play on the first play of TSU's second position. Joey Hudak's PAT gave the Tigers the 7-0 at the 11:46 mark of the opening period.

The Tigers stretched the halftime advantage to 21-0 with a pair of second-quarter scores. Anthony broke through on a 42-yard scoring run to conclude a 7-play, 82-yard march that was kept alive by a roughing the kicker penalty.

TSU's final TD of the first half came on a 13-yard pass from Rosser to senior Ande Durojaiye. The 4-play, 92-yard drive was keyed by a 58-yard screen pass from Rosser to Anthony.
Murray State opened the scoring in the third quarter with its lone TD of the contest on a 16-yard pass from Stephen Hatchell to Brandon Roddy. TSU set the drive up with a fumble at its own 42-yard line.

The Tigers took advantage of a Murray State turnover as Gerald Morrow recovered a Landon Cobb fumble at the Murray State 22-yard line. The Tigers wasted little time in capitalizing on the miscue as Rosser threw a TD pass to Johnson on the next play to make the score 28-10 with 28 second remaining in the third period.

TSU's final score came with 10:47 remaining in the fourth period as backup quarterback Riley Walker threw to Ronald Jackson for a 22-yard scoring play. Hudak's fifth extra point made the score 35-10 which stood the remainder of the way.