Defense Leads ASU to Win at MVSU

ITTA BENA, Mississippi  --  On a day when the Alabama State University offense struggled on the football field, the Hornet's defense stepped up, scored a touchdown and held Mississippi Valley State to one score on their way to a 19-7 win.

ASU had their worse offensive game of the season as MVSU's defense made the Hornets offense struggle from the get go. ASU only ran for 75 yards on 36 carries and the passing game was off as well throwing for 128 yards picking up 203 total yards.

MVSU was not much better as they only managed 67 yards rushing and threw for 211 yards in picking up 278 yards of total offense.

"I have had the opportunity to come to Valley as a player, assistant coach and now as a head coach and it is tough," Head Coach Reggie Barlow said. "You can't allow the atmosphere to dictate the way you play and unfortunately we did on offense, but on defense we found a way to make some plays."

ASU's defense had three total sacks with Derrick Billups grabbing 1.5 (-8 yards) of those. In fact, Billups may have had his best game of the year finishing with nine total tackles with 6.5 of those coming behind the line of scrimmage (-28 yards).

Along with the three sacks the Hornets' defense came up with 13 tackles behind the line of scrimmage which resulted in another 52 yards of lost yardage.

Edward Mosley came up with a fumble recovery and Deandre Rashada and Najee Bright teamed for what may have been the tide-turning play of the game at the end of the first half, and each had interceptions.

"Our defensive line has been strong all season and they did a good job for us today," Barlow said. "Valley wasn't really able to run the ball on us and they (defense) did a good job of getting pressure on the quarterback, although we would have liked to have a few more sacks on him, but we were able to get some pressure on him and keep them from running the ball."

There was only one score in the second half and that came from the arm of Daniel Duhart who hit Jamel Johnson from 15 yards out late in the third quarter.

Most of MVSU's offense came from quarterback Patrick Ivy. He completed 17 of his 37 pass attempts for 211 yards. He was also the game's leading rusher with 58 yards on 16 carries, and most of those came on scrambling plays.

Duhart finished the game completing 16 of his 34 pass attempts for 128 yards and the score. He also had three interceptions, which evened his interception number he had thrown before today's game.

Both offenses struggled in the first half as the defenses took over. ASU only managed 124 yards on 41 plays while the hosts had 145 yards on 32 plays.

MVSU (2-9/2-76 SWAC) actually took a 7-0 when they were able to get a short field and drove 56 yards in 11 plays as Patrick Ivy scored from yard out in the first quarter.

ASU (7-4/ 7-2 SWAC) took the ensuing kickoff and drove 42 yards down the field and after the drive stalled, Bobby Wenzig was able to kick a season-long 46 yard field goal to cut the lead to 7-3.

Neither offense could get anything going in the second quarter until the Hornets drove 46 yards in 11 plays and Wenzig added his second field goal of the half from 31 yards out and the Hornets trailed 7-6 with eight seconds left in the half.

After a short kickoff, MVSU's Ivy threw a long pass on the final play of the half. Najee Bright intercepted the ball on ASU's 25 and began to weave his way down field. At MVSU's 15 yard line he flipped the ball back to Deandre Rashada who was able to go the final 15 yards and dove into the endzone for the score. The extra point was blocked, but ASU led 12-7 going into halftime.

"Right before that play I am trying to think what I'm going to say to these guys at halftime to get them going and to go and play, "Barlow said. "And then Najee Bright making a play and not being satisfied with getting the interception but trying to score and pitching it (to Rashada) for the score. I thought that would get us going coming out after halftime but we still struggled."

ASU will be off next week with their next game coming Nov. 28 when they host Stillman College in the 90^th Turkey Day Classic at 3 p.m.

Box Score       

COURTESY ALABAMA STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION