Sept. 15, 2008

BATON ROUGE, LA -- Southern scored early, often and late in posting a 49-7 win over Mississippi Valley State in the SU Jaguars homer opener on Saturday night, in a non-conference game.

SU took a 7-0 first-quarter lead on a Brian Threat 9-yard touchdown run with 3:29 to play in the first quarter. After recovering a botched kickoff, Southern scored 10 second later, on the next play as Juamorris Stewart's 30-yard touchdown catch from Bryant Lee gave the Jaguars a 14-0 lead.

Mississippi Valley State got on the board in the second quarter on a Ryan Burciaga 12-yard touchdown pass to Cameron Russ to cut the deficit to 14-7.

Southern took firm control of the game from that point, scoring touchdowns on its next two possessions with touchdown runs by Threat (1 yard) and Kendrick Smith (3 yards) to give the SU Jags a commanding 28-7 halftime lead. QB Bryant Lee threw a pair of second-half touchdown passes to Del Roberts (46 yards) and Stewart (4 yards), and defensive back, Marcus Doss starting in his first collegiate game, scoring on an 18-yard fumble recovery to end the scoring.

Offensively for Southern, Bryant Lee completed 13 or 24 passes for 193 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions while rushing 16 times for 74 yards. Kendrick Smith led the Jaguar rushing attack that accounted for a season high 234 yards, by rushing 13 times for 101 yards and one touchdown. Brian Threat rushed four times for 17 yards, but scored twice. Del Roberts led SU with 4 catches for 65 yards and one touchdown, while Juamorris Stewart had three catches for 64 yards and two scores.

Defensively, safety Glenn Bell led SU with nine tackles (5 solo, 4 assists) to go along with one tackles for loss and one quarterback hurry. Linebacker Jonathan Malveaux finished with eight (3 solo, 5 assists) and one quarterback hurry, while nose tackle Joseph Selders had seven (1 solo, 6 assists) and Gary Chatman had six tackles ( 3 solo, 3 assists) with one tackle for loss.

For MVSU, Burciaga completed 18 of 50 passes for 168 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Ronald Brewer rushed 16 times for 72 yards, and Russ led the Delta Devils with four receptions for 41 yards. Rory Malone led the Delta Devils with 13 tackles, while Fred Poole added nine tackles.

Southern is open this week, after a hectic start to the season dealing with Hurricane Gustav and the remnants of Hurricane Ike. SU will return to action next weekend when they travel to Lorman, MS to take on the Braves of Alcorn State at 5:00 pm.