It’s the same old story for Mississippi Valley State.
The offense continues to struggle, and the defense winds up breaking down in the fourth quarter.
Southern University scored a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to hand Valley a 17-7 loss Saturday before an announced crowd of 3,986 at Rice-Totten Stadium in Itta Bena.
“We’ve got to score more points when we have the chance. That’s been the thorn in our side as long as I’ve been here,” said fourth-year Valley head coach Karl Morgan. “We looked better at the end of last year, but we’ve got to get this thing fixed.”
MVSU falls to 0-4 overall, 0-2 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, while Southern moves to 2-2, 2-0 with its second straight win.
“It was just not a good performance in a game that was very winnable,” Morgan said.
Facing a porous Jaguar defense that ranks 108th out of 114 FCS teams against the run, Morgan had hoped this would be a breakout game for his struggling offense.
But in the end, it was just another frustrating result. The Delta Devils managed just 58 rushing yards on 26 carries against a defense that came in yielding 328 yards per game on the ground.
Valley finished with 246 yards and was a woeful 4 of 15 on third-down conversions.
The Delta Devils avoided the shutout thanks to an SU special teams blunder when the snap from center got past the punter, with Valley recovering at the SU 28-yard line with 1:30 to play.
That led to a 3-yard touchdown run by quarterback Patrick Ivy with 22 seconds left.
Before that, Valley was 0 for 2 on its only two other trips into the red zone — both in the first half.
Cherchen Galon missed a 26-yard field goal attempt. He also failed to get off another try when the holder mishandled the snap and then tried to run with the ball.
“We’ve got to come away with points when we get down there like that. It just kills you when you don’t,” Morgan said.
The Valley defense played well for three quarters holding the potent Jaguar attack to just 126 total yards, but Southern racked up 142 yards in the final quarter — thanks to touchdown drives of 97 and 72 yards.
Jaguar quarterback Dray Joseph had 288 yards passing and a touchdown.
A 22-yard field goal by Southern’s Greg Pittman in the first half was the only score until the fourth quarter as both teams struggled on offense.
Lenard Tillery’s 5-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter broke the scoring drought to put Southern up 10-0. Joseph later connected with Lee Doss for a 60-yard touchdown reception with 8:04 left to give the Jaguars a 17-0 lead.
Doss caught a game-high 10 passes for 164 yards to lead the Jaguars.
nContact Bill Burrus at 581-7237 or bburrus@gwcommonwealth.com. Follow on Twitter:@Bill_Burrus.
