Homecoming Ends On Happy Note As PVAMU Panthers Claim 51-14 Win Over Mississippi Valley State

PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas -- Prairie View A&M capped off a successful homecoming as they exploded for 38 unanswered points in the second and third quarters to claim a 51-14 win before a sold out crowd at Blackshear Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

After suffering an early turnover on its opening drive, PVAMU responded on its second drive of the afternoon as freshman Anthony Wiltz ran a punt back 34 yards to the MVSU 16. Junior running back Courtney Brown opened the drive with an 11-yard burst followed by Jerry Lovelocke's five-yard touchdown pass to senior wide out Deandre Cooper with 10:06 on the clock in the first quarter.

MVSU's defense held its ground after the early touchdown and forced the Panthers to punt once and turn the ball over on downs. On the opposite end, the Panther defense played inspired football as they forced MVSU to punt four consecutive times before MVSU jumped on the board with an eight-play, 63-yard drive that was capped off by Patrick Durr's 7-yard touchdown run and Cherchen Galon's PAT for the 7-7 tie in the second quarter.
 

Both teams kept up the defensive battle once again as they traded punts before the PVAMU coaching staff made the game's biggest adjustment early in the second quarter. With MVSU's defense nipping on their heels, the staff made a major adjustment midway through the second quarter and went with short passes and quarterback draws to keep MVSU's aggressive defense at bay. The adjustment worked successfully as they went on a 15-play, 90-yard drive which ended with quarterback De'Auntre Smiley running in from eight yards out. Chris Barrick's PAT was good as the Panthers led 14-7 with 5:24 left in the half.
 

Before the crowd could finish cheering for the last score, junior linebacker Jerome Howard picked off a MVSU pass on the opening play of the drive and ran it in untouched for a touchdown. The PAT was good as the Panthers led 21-7 17 seconds later. Once again, the Panther defense forced its second straight turnover as senior linebacker Korey Alston forced a fumble which was recovered by freshman safety Kenneth Maxwell. Four plays later, Smiley found Cooper for a 34-yard scoring strike as the Panthers went into the half ahead 28-7 following Barrick's PAT.
 

After several games of allowing teams to creep back in despite having big leads, the second half was all PVAMU as Smiley found freshman wide out Nick Pitre for a 20-yard touchdown pass followed by Cooper's third touchdown of the afternoon on an 11-yard pass from Smiley for a 44-7 third quarter lead. MVSU added a touchdown early in the fourth quarter but PVAMU capped it off with its running game as Levon Castillo scored from 17 yards out with 2:35 left to send the homecoming crowd home happy.
 

The Panthers were effective on both sides of the ball as they finished with 532 total offensive yards while allowing a season-low 178 yards to MVSU. Cooper led the way with nine receptions for 96 yards while Lovelocke and Smiley combined to throw four touchdowns and 29 completions on 43 attempts. Junior running back Fred Anderson picked up a team-high 69 yards on nine carries in the second half followed by 57 yards and six receptions from Patrick Gant. Defensively, Howard led the way with six tackles, a half-sack, three tackles for loss and a 23-yard interception return for a TD while

 

 Raheem Cardwell finished with six tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.
 

PVAMU returns to action next week in the Port City as they'll face Jackson State in a huge SWAC match up in the fourth annual Shreveport Classic. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. inside Independence Stadium.

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