No 9 Langston Halts Lane Dragons, Remain Unbeaten

JACKSON, Tennessee -- The No. 9 Langston Lions pushed their win streak to five games after holding off the Lane College Dragons 27-21 in a non-conference tilt on Saturday, Oct. 7.

The Lions jumped out to an early lead following a 18-yard touchdown run from Milton Harper (SR/Tulsa, Okla.) at the 10:36 mark in the first quarter; Langston started with a short at the Dragons 45-yard line following a fumble recovery on a punt.

Three drives later, Langston marched their way to the Lane College 21-yard line before two penalties, two rushing attempts for four yards and an incomplete pass had the Lions facing a fourth-and-21; Jaylen Lowe (JR/Collinsville, Okla.) cooked up a bit of magic and hit Cedric Jackson (JR/Marrero, La.) for a 32-yard touchdown to put Langston ahead 14-0 at the end of the first.

Langston tacked on another score prior to intermission after Tim Whitfield (FR/Meeker, Okla.) scored on a one-yard run to cap an 11-play, 62-yard drive at the 5:14 mark in the second half.



Harper pushed the Lions to 27-0 after hooking up with Elyon Zeigler (SO/New Orleans, La.) for a 12-yard touchdown pass with 5:33 remaining in the third quarter.

The Dragons countered with a seven-play, 62-yard scoring drive which ended with Marquez Pickett tossing a 30-yard touchdown into the hands of Aaron Thomas; Lane College continued to chip away at the lead in the fourth quarter following a four-yard TD run by Marcus Holiday and another 30-yard touchdown pass from Pickett to Omari Hampton at the 5:30 mark in the fourth quarter.

Lane College retained possession at the 4:08 mark and marched to the Langston 48-yard line but three straight incompletions by Pickett halted the Dragons scoring drive attempt. The Dragons regained possession once more with 2:13 remaining at the Langston 20-yard line.

Facing a 2nd-and-10 at the 20-yard line, the Lions defense stood tall when Malik Argue (SR/New Orleans, La.) sacked Pickett for a 15-yard loss to pin the Dragons back to their own five-yard line. Pickett completed two straight passes but only netted one yard in the process to seal the road victory for the Lions.

Harper led the Lions passing attacked, finishing seven-for-13 for 116 yards and one touchdown; Lowe completed four-for-nine for 56 yards and one touchdown. Tim Whitfield anchored the ground game with 68 yards on 13 rushes with one touchdown; Jackson finished with five catches for 85 yards and one touchdown.

Defensively, James Cox (SO/Hammond, La.) led Langston with eight total tackles included two tackles for loss. Dennis Gafford (FR/Houston, Texas), Michael Smith (SR/Compton, Calif.), Jamarie Finnie and Peter Gordon (JR/Del City, Okla.) all finished second on team with seven total tackles.
Langston (5-0, 3-0) returns to CSFL action next week when they host Texas College in the Black Wall Street Classic in Tulsa, Okla. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m.

BOX SCORE



LANGSTON UNIVERSITY LIONS ATHLETICS MEDIA RELATIONS