SATURDAY'S SCORES
@#1 Jacksonville State 42, Murray State 20
UT Martin 28, @Southeast Missouri 25
@Eastern Illinois 21, #23 Eastern Kentucky 7
@Tennessee Tech 30, Tennessee State 24
#1 JACKSONVILLE STATE 42, MURRAY STATE 20
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - Junior quarterback Eli Jenkins rolled up more than 340 yards of total offense and scored five touchdowns to lead top-ranked Jacksonville State to a 42-20 victory over Murray State in the 2015 regular season finale.
With the win the Gamecocks secured an outright Ohio Valley Conference Championship for the second-straight year, improving to 10-1 overall and 8-0 in the OVC.
Jenkins threw for 212 yards and two touchdowns on 15 of 30 passing, but it was his legs that put most of the points on the board, as he rushed for 130 yards on 11 carries and tied his career high with TD runs of seven, 24, and 65 yards. Josh Barge caught both touchdown passes and finished the game with seven catches for 92 yards.
The two touchdowns gave Barge the single-season JSU record for touchdown receptions with 11, continuing a long line of receiving records for the junior, who already holds the career record for receptions (189) and is closing in on the record for receiving yards. His two touchdown catches on Saturday were his fifth career multi-touchdown game, breaking Ronald Bonner's school record of four.
Senior linebacker Dawson Wells had 11 tackles to lead a Jax State defense that would finish the day with seven sacks for a total loss of 33 yards.
Senior Chris Landrum, Sr., notched seven tackles, including a school-record 4.5 tackles for a loss, and forced a fumble. He had 2.5 sacks. The Sweet Water, Ala., native ran his career total to 33.5, breaking Warren Blair's record of 32.0 from 1995-97.
Senior Troymaine Pope made the most of his final regular-season start, rushing for 82 yards on 17 carries. He scored the first touchdown of the game on a 22-yard run with 7:49 left in the first quarter. He now has 1,092 yards on the season, moving from 15th to eighth on JSU's single-season list, while his 2,680 career yards move him past Reginald Goodloe for fifth on the career list.
Murray State responded with a 10-play drive that reached the JSU 10-yard line, but the defense held, and the Racers Connor Mitchell kicked a 27-yard field goal to cut the score to 7-3.
The Gamecocks answered with a seven-play touchdown drive, highlighted by a 43-yard pass from Jenkins to Markis Merrill and capped by Jenkins' seven-yard touchdown run. He would later connect with Barge on a 13-yard touchdown early in the second quarter to give JSU the 21-3 halftime lead.
Despite the many superlatives for the Gamecocks, however, there was some uneven play that kept the outcome in doubt until late. In the second quarter, Jaylen Hill returned an interception 45 yards to give JSU possession at the Murray State 23, Jenkins threw his only pick of the day on the very next play when he was intercepted by DeQuinten Spraggins at the 10-yard line.
The Gamecocks also lost two fumbles on the day, including one inside the five that was picked up by Racers lineman Demetrius Mason and returned one yard for Murray State's first touchdown, cutting the JSU lead to 21-13 in the third quarter.
The Gamecocks responded with a four-play drive that covered 82 yards and ended when Jenkins raced around the right to find the end zone from 24 yards out. He extended the lead again with a 27-yard pass to Barge in the third quarter, but Murray State would cut that lead again h with a 35-yard touchdown pass from KD Humphries to Dominique Rhymes.
After the ensuing kickoff gave the Gamecocks the ball on their own 35, Jenkins would cap the scoring for the day with a 65-yard touchdown run, his longest of the season.
Murray State (3-7, 2-6) finished with 398 yards of total offense, including 310 through the air. Humphries completed 22 of 45 pass attempts with one interception.
UT MARTIN 28, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 25
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) - Jarod Neal threw three TD passes and Trent Garland ran for 138 yards and a score as Tennessee-Martin held of Southeast Missouri State, 28-25 Saturday.
Neal found Caylon Weathers from 10-yards out in the third quarter and, less than four minutes later, connected with Rod Wright for the second time, this one from 20-yards out to give the Skyhawks (7-4, 6-2 Ohio Valley) a 28-10 lead.
Southeast Missouri State's Dante Vandeven threw a pair of late touchdown passes to Paul McRoberts, adding a toss to Logan Larson for a two-point conversion, to create the final margin.
Neal finished 16 of 29 for 164 yards, but was picked off once. The Skyhawks rushed for 247 yards on 41 carries.
Vandeven completed 21 of 39 for 226 yards and two touchdowns for Southeast Missouri State (4-7, 3-4), but was picked off three times. Tremane McCullough ran for 101 yards and a score.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 21, #23 EASTERN KENTUCKY 7
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Eastern Illinois forced a timely turnover which resulted in a Panthers touchdown for the second straight week as EIU beat Eastern Kentucky, 21-7, Saturday afternoon on Senior Day at O’Brien Field.
The win keeps the Panthers FCS at-large playoff hopes alive as they finished the regular season 7-4 overall, 7-1 in the OVC. Eastern Kentucky, which was ranked No. 23 in this week’s STATS FCS Media Poll, ended the year at 6-5 overall, 5-3 in the OVC.
Leading 7-0 early in the third quarter EIU’s defense forced two EKU quarterbacks out of the game at a crucial juncture of the game. EIU had a mishandled snap on the punt on its opening drive of the third quarter which gave EKU the ball at the EIU 25 yard line. On the second EKU play Thomas Coronado forced an incomplete pass by Bennie Coney as Coney was injured on the play. On the next play Dino Fanti sacked back-up quarterback Kyle Romano forcing a fumble that Nick Horne scooped up and returned 62 yards for a touchdown. On the play Romano was injured leaving third string quarterback Tyler Swafford to finish the game.
In last week’s win over UT Martin, Fanti hit the Skyhawks quarterback from behind forcing an interception that Coronado returned for a touchdown. Fanti finished the day with five tackles, four tackles for loss, two sacks, two forced fumbles and two quarterback hurries. Already the EIU career leader in tackles for loss, Fanti became the Panthers single season record holder on Saturday afternoon.
As both teams played the field position game in the opening half in a howling North wind, James Brooks slipped through a tackle for a nice punt return that gave EIU the ball at midfield. Malik Harrison ripped off a 34-yard run on the second play of the drive to put EIU inside the 20-yard line. Jalen Whitlow capped the drive with a 9-yard run that gave EIU a 7-0 lead with 1:06 to play in the opening half.
Harrison would provide more offense in the second half as he led the Panthers with 79 yards rushing on 13 carries. He found the end zone from nine yards out with 4:35 left in the third quarter that put EIU up 21-0 at the time.
The Colonels used a big special teams play in the fourth quarter to stay alive. LaJuan Smith blocked a punt that was picked up by Tyrell Curry and returned 35 yards for a touchdown with 4:20 to play. EKU used that play as its only real spark as the Colonels were limited to 40 yards rushing and 153 yards passing on the day.
Trailing 21-7, EKU got the ball back with 1:44 to play but had the drive end as Bradley Dewberry had the fifth interception of the day for EIU’s defense. Swafford had four of the interceptions as the third string quarterback going 10-fo-24 for 99 yards.
Jourdan Wickliffe had two of the interceptions as the senior moved into a tie for second on the EIU career interceptions list with 14. Dewberry added two picks and a game high eight tackles. Dylan Chatman had the final interception for EIU as the Panthers had total of seven turnovers gained for the afternoon.
Chris Kelly led EKU with ten tackles including two tackles for loss. Noah Spence, the FCS leader in sacks and tackles for loss, had seven tackles with none for loss. EIU’s offensive line played its seventh straight game without allowing a sack.
Prior to the game the Charleston area was hit with just under 2 inches of snow that was cleared prior to the game by the EIU Grounds Crew.
TENNESSEE TECH 30, TENNESSEE STATE 24
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Forget the wind and rain. Forget that the temperature dropped 17 degrees during the game to a cool 46 degrees.
For Tennessee Tech's senior class, Saturday was one of the most beautiful days of the year.
The seniors came up with several of the biggest plays of the afternoon as Tennessee Tech jumped out to an early lead, then stopped Tennessee State in several critical situations as the Golden Eagles wrapped up the 2015 season with a 30-24 Ohio Valley Conference victory in Tucker Stadium.
Ladarius Vanlier rushed for 132 yards and the game's first two touchdowns, and finished with 204 all-purpose yards to lead the offense. He scored from five yards on Tech's first possession for a 7-0 lead. Just over a minute later, on the next Tech offensive play following a TSU punt, Vanlier squeezed through a hole on the left side and galloped untouched for 79 yards and a 14-0 lead.
Defensively, Tra'Darius Goff topped the charts with 16 tackles, one tackle-for-loss, one pass breakup and one quarterback hurry. Jay Rudwall made 11 tackles in the contest.
Jordan Patrick had 11 tackles, one quarterback sack, two tackles-for-loss and one hurry. He blew up the offensive line on a fourth quarter third-and-one, stopping the ball carrier for a loss and forcing the Tigers to punt. On Tennessee State's final possession, he came up with an 11-yard quarterback sack that realistically halted the Tigers' last chance.
The Golden Eagles (4-7/3-5 OVC) also got some big plays from underclassmen for the win, with one of the biggest coming from sophomore Mike Cain and junior Maleek Hall and another from freshman Chris Moore.
After Tech had forged a fast 14-0 lead on Vanlier's two touchdown runs, the Tigers marched 67 yards for a touchdown, with Erick Evans racing the final 22 yards to the end zone. On the PAT, Cain bulled through the middle of the line and blocked the kick and Hall picked up the bouncing ball and ran 90 yards for a two-point defensive PAT to make it 16-6.
On the ensuing kickoff, the Golden Eagles failed to pick up a bouncing ball deep in their own territory, and TSU recovered to set up a short scoring drive. Evans pushed it over from the one to make it 16-14.
Another critical play came from Golden Eagle defensive end Chris Moore, a true freshman. He intercepted a pass near midfield and rambled 52 yards for a touchdown and a 23-14 lead.
The only score of the third quarter was a nine-yard TD pass for TSU from O'Shay Ackerman-Carter to Patrick Smith. The trimmed the TTU lead to 23-21.
Quarterback Brock McCoin, was was 6-of-12 for 60 yards passing, hit his biggest completion of the day when he found Krys Cates open in the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown with 12:37 to play. That gave Tech a 30-21 lead.
Patrick, Rudwall and Goff had plays in the fourth quarter that preserved the win. Patrick got the tackle-for-loss on third-and one. On the next possession, when TSU drove to the Tech three-yard line, Goff and Rudwall stopped Evans at the one on second down, then on third down Goff got to Ackerman-Carter, forcing a hurried throw that fell incomplete in the end zone.
TSU settled for a field goal to make it 30-24.
Vanlier returned the kickoff 48 yards into TSU territory and McCoin and Co. chiseled more than two minutes off the clock before being forced to punt. Jonathan King's kick pinned TSU at the tiger seven with two minutes remaining.
Kevin Robinson-White got a quarterback hurry to force an incompletion, followed by another QB hurry from Patrick. On third-and-three, Patrick sacked Ackerman-Carter for an 11-yard loss and the Tigers' fourth-down try went incomplete, with Hall breaking it up to clinch the win.
TSU was led on offense by Evans who rushed for 111 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries. Ackerman-Carter was 22-for-40 for 221 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Patrick Smith caught seven passes for 63 yards while Evans added six catches for 57 yards.