Volume 63 - Issue 15

Page 1

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Special Graduation Issue

Volume 63, Issue 15

see Fall 2014 Graduate List Pages 6-8

ENCORE! 52

FINAL SCORE:

45

Jaguars hold off Grambling St. and return to Reliant Stadium for the SWAC Championship

Alliyah Mooore/DIGEST Southern University Head Football Coach Dawson Odums is joined by Southern University’s Acting Chancellor Flandus McClinton, Jr. and the jaguar football team as they celebrate their victory over rival Grambling State in the 2014 Bayou Classic. The Jaguars travel to Houston, TX this weekend to face Alcorn State for the 2014 SWAC Championship at NRG Reliant Stadium.

BY FELIX CUNNINGHAM III

SPORTS EDITOR

One foot to the end zone, 0:06 seconds left on the clock and the scores lingered Southern University 52 and Grambling State University 45, Grambling possesses the ball. The crowd is restless and silence entered the Mercedes-Benz Superdome but when Grambling snapped the ball and quarterback, Jonathon Williams opens the dual threat mode for the sneak to reach for it all, yet the Southern defense stood firm. Five, four, three, two, and one. It was over, the defense kept Grambling behind the goal line and Southern won the Classic which was the highest scoring Classic in history and on rivalry weekend, the teams did not disappoint. “As long as there was time on the clock, we had to stop them from getting that foot,”

said senior defensive captain, Arthur Miley. To win it all which all the stakes were on the line, the Western Division title, breaking the 20-20 tie, as well as going to the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship, Southern cascaded adversity from the Grambling State Tigers. “For us to be here, I wish I had the Las Vegas odds,” said Southern head coach Dawson Odums. For the first time all season and at the 41st Bayou Classic located at the MercedesBenz Superdome in the Crescent City of New Orleans, Southern jumped out of the gate and scored two touchdowns in the first quarter alone which allowed Grambling to be kept at the backfield with the empty set. Junior wide receiver, Willie Quinn, caught the first touchdown pass for 13 yards and

07:46 left in the first quarter. In the same fashion and for an early start, wide receiver, Mike Jones caught a medium range pass, 04:08 left for 45 yards and reached the end-zone. All in all, a slow start was not needed for Southern’s return to glory and the “dome” in times passed, has seen some sights. Accumulating an early lead, Southern thrived in the end-zone and turned it around for the team. This is all for Southern to return to the SWAC Championship against the Alcorn Braves at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. Southern needed the go ahead for those early scores. The question of the season was who was going to be that quarterback. Having had a calculating brilliant first quarter, true freshman, Austin Howard was 3 of 4 on pass completions in the first quarter which reeled in the reigns.

THE OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY AND A&M COLLEGE, BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA

In response to the Jaguars explosive first quarter offense, Grambling followed suit in the second quarter scoring their first touchdown when running back Cedric Skinner wheeled his was into the end-zone by bombarding Southern’s defense for two yards and kicker Marc Orozo made a field goal for Grambling making the score 24-10. After an interception by redshirt junior safety, Dionte McDuffy, after a bullet to the outside, Howard raced back onto the field and bombed it to Mike Jones once again for a 55-yard touchdown for the first play of the possession after the Grambling turnover. Southern led by 21 points before the end of the first half. Without getting overexcited as Jaguar fans

see Encore on P. 5


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