MOBILE, Ala. – Thanks to an injury in last weekend’s contest against Henderson (Ark.) State, Thursday night marked the first time this season that University of South Alabama true freshman J.J. Keels was expected to handle all kick return duties for the Jaguars.  He didn’t wait long to take advantage of the opportunity.

Keels’ 45-yard punt return set up the Jags’ first score, and he ran back the opening kickoff of the second half 100 yards for a touchdown to help USA to a 35-3 non-conference football victory over Mississippi Valley State at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.  He would finish the night with 170 all-purpose yards — Keels had 61 rushing yards in five games entering play — including a 25-yard carry that resulted in another short touchdown run in the second quarter.

“On the punt, I saw that it was a shanked kick,” he stated.  “During the week, coach (Tommy) Perry taught us that a two-bounce punt, one that hits a roll twice, will pop up on the third (bounce).  I learned that in baseball.  I saw the two-bounce, ran full speed towards it, picked it up and saw my punt team coming down the sideline to block for me, made a cut off a great block by Bryant Lavender and ended up getting hit by one of the linemen.”

After forcing a three-and-out on the Delta Devils’ first possession, Keels picked up a punt at the 47-yard line and returned it to the MVSU-2; Kendall Houston would cross the goal line two plays later to give USA a 7-0 lead just over two minutes into the contest.  He used another long gain, a rush for 25 yards down the left sideline, to set up a second short Houston touchdown — the latter scored one play later from one yard out to make the score 21-0 with four-and-a-half minutes left in the opening half, the third time this season he has recorded multiple touchdowns in the same game.

Keels also had an 11-yard carry on the second snap of the possession, with C.J. Bennett and Kevin Helms connecting for a 14-yard gain and a first down to get USA across midfield.

Keels added the kickoff return for a score, the first touchdown of his career, ending the night as the team’s leading rusher with 48 yards on eight carries.

“Everybody was telling me at the beginning of the game, ‘You know, today you have to get a touchdown.’  My whole thing coming into the game, though, was to put forth effort and help my team win — if I score one, I score one,” Keels observed.  “Once I got close to the sideline, I told myself, ‘you have to score here.’  I want to go down in history for something, I have to do something in this game.  I ended up doing it on a kickoff return, which was history, as well as my first career touchdown.”

“It was big for J.J. to come in there as a true freshman and make those types of plays,” commented Jaguar head coach Joey Jones.  “We lost B.J. [Scott] and Jeremé [Jones], so we have gotten thin in our return game.  I thought he stepped up and did really well.  That [the kickoff return] was a big play in the game.”

For the second straight game, the Jag defense surrendered its lowest amount of total offense to the opposition — the Delta Devils managed just 166 yards on 73 snaps, including only 67 yards passing.

Charles Harris posted a game-best 12 stops to lead the unit — including one for loss — while also forcing a fumble.  Ben Giles recorded a career-high nine tackles, Enrique Williams added seven and a pass defensed and Ken Barefield was credited with six including a sack.  Ten individuals contributed to nine stops behind the line of scrimmage that resulted in a loss of 49 yards for the MVSU offense.

Houston posted 31 yards on six attempts to go along with the two scores, Myles Gibbon rushed for 23 and Santuan McGee collected 20 yards on the ground.  Gibbon closed out the scoring with a 56-yard touchdown to Greg Hollinger with five minutes left in the third quarter, which put the Jaguars ahead 35-0, as he and Bennett combined to complete 9-of-12 attempts.  Corey Waldon caught a team-high three passes for 24 yards, while Helms recorded a pair of receptions for 30.

USA finished with 252 yards of total offense — 127 rushing and 125 through the air.

The Jags doubled their advantage in the final minute of the opening period, marching 80 yards in 14 plays before Bennett scored on a one-yard sneak on fourth-and-goal.  It was USA’s second fourth-down conversion of the possession — Houston picked up four yards on fourth-and-one from the MVSU-28 — while Bennett moved the chains with third-down completions to Helms for 16 yards and Lavender for six.

After the Jags’ opening score, MVSU would drive 42 yards in 12 plays, but after Williams forced an incompletion on third-and-eight from the 20-yard line Romelle Jones blocked Carlos Sanchez’ 37-yard field-goal attempt.  The Delta Devils also advanced as far as the USA-16 early in the second quarter, however a bad snap on second down led to a 20-yard loss and forced MVSU to punt two plays later.

The Delta Devils’ final drive of the first half also reached the red zone, as Garrett Jones moved MVSU 41 yards in the last four-and-a-half minutes; Barefield’s sack on third-and-goal from the USA-10, however, led to a 39-yard field-goal attempt that sailed wide left as time expired.

Jones was 7-of-23 passing for 67 yards, adding 41 yards rushing on 15 attempts, and Trey Batiste collected a game-high 60 yards on 22 carries, but the Delta Devils managed only 44 yards of total offense over the final 30 minutes.

“All week we knew the quarterback was going to run,” said Barefield.  “In the first half, we weren’t making the tackles we needed to make but we came out in the second half and fixed the mistakes.  At halftime we game-planned and schemed, and came out to shut them down pretty good in the second half.”

MVSU finally broke through late in the third, taking advantage of a muffed punt that Marquez Floyd recovered at the Jag three-yard line when Sanchez converted from 28 yards out.

Armon Williams led the Delta Devils with seven total stops, Kwaku Boa collected six — two of those were for a loss — and Leployer Franklin, the squad’s leading tackler entering the night, posted five.

“We moved the ball fairly well tonight, but we just got bogged down in the red zone,” commented MVSU head coach Karl Morgan.  “I thought we did some good things offensively, we just didn’t convert when we had to convert.  The plus for South Alabama is that they played good red zone defense; the bottom line is they stopped us and kept us off the scoreboard.”

USA has now held consecutive opponents without a touchdown for the first time since Edward Waters (Fla.) and Kentucky Wesleyan failed to reach the end zone on Sept. 25 and Oct. 2 last year.

“I thought we played really sound in the first half,” said Jones.  “The defense gave up a little yardage in between the 20s, but got stiff down there toward the goal line.  The offense had a short field a couple of times, then we had an 80-plus yard drive in the first half, which is big.  The special teams played well — the return game was good and we kicked the ball well.  Overall I am real pleased with the game.

“We are kind of a methodical football team, we don’t have big-play guys on offense,” he continued.  “J.J. came in and sparked us in the return game, and he had a couple of good runs.  But we are the kind of team that if we don’t make mistakes and have a lot of penalties, we have a chance to beat a lot of people.  When we play like we did tonight then we end up on the winning side, so we just need to keep that up.”

The Jags will conclude their third season — and the first of a two-year transition to the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level — with a 4 p.m. match-up against Cal Poly on Saturday, Nov. 19.  The game, which can be seen live on UTV 44 in Mobile and Pensacola, and ESPN3.com worldwide, will be the third in a row at home for USA.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com.  Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

—USA—

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