HEARTBROKEN AGAIN; JAG FOOTBALL FALLS BY A POINT TO ARKANSAS STATE

Enrique Williams tied a school record with 17 tackles Saturday night against Arkansas State.

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MOBILE, Ala. – The final blow Saturday didn't come in the final seconds for the University of South Alabama football team like its two losses last month, but the result was one that that Jaguars have become all too familiar with throughout the 2013 campaign.

Sirgregory Thornton scored on a three-yard run with six-and-a-half minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, providing the final score in a 17-16 Sun Belt Conference victory for Arkansas State over the Jags at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

It's the fourth time this season that USA — which is now 3-5 overall, 1-3 in the Sun Belt — has dropped a decision by two points or less, with the Jaguars' three conference losses coming by a total of four combined points. The Red Wolves improved to 4-4, 2-1 in the SBC, with their second straight victory in the series.

"It's getting tough to walk in the locker room when you lose close games like that," stated USA head coach Joey Jones. "We played a good ballgame overall. There were some things we could have done better, but we obviously lost it in the fourth quarter again and that's tough to take. We have a bunch of guys hurting right now.

"I've never seen a team improve as much as they have and not see the rewards," he continued. "That's the thing that hurts me most, because I feel like we're much improved as a team from last year to this year. It's not even close. But it's not showing up in the win column, and that's the bottom line."

With the Jags up six as the fourth quarter began, the two teams traded field goals; Brian Davis connected from 50 yards out to cut the Red Wolves' deficit in half, but Aleem Sunanon answered with a 30-yard effort with just under 10 minutes to go to extend the USA lead to 16-10. On the ensuing drive, after Adam Kennedy converted on third-and-one with a two-yard rush, he found Julian Jones for a 31-yard gain. Kennedy followed with a 14-yard rush to move the ball to the USA-19, Fredi Knighten added a nine-yard carry and Thornton reached the end zone three plays later.

The Jaguars would possess the ball twice the rest of the way, gaining one first down on each drive but not crossing midfield.

Kennedy recorded 201 yards of total offense, including completing 15-of-17 pass attempts for 136 yards. He paced the Red Wolves with 65 yards on 16 rushes as well, while Knighten carried 10 times for 54 yards, Michael Gordon added 26 and David Oku 25. Allen Muse had a game-high seven catches for 58 yards, Jones supplied 48 on three receptions and J.D. McKissic caught six balls for 29 yards.

ASU posted 349 yards overall, the second-lowest total allowed by the Jaguars this year. Enrique Williams led all players with 17 stops, tying a school game record, with Terrell Brigham adding 11 tackles and Montell Garner a career-best 10. Desmond LaVelle also was credited with a career-high total after recording nine stops including his first-ever sack, Alex Page had three tackles for loss among his six stops and Romelle Jones added five with two behind the line of scrimmage.

"We felt like we did pretty well for the most part," said Page. "We did let them drive down two times and score, but other than that I felt like we had great pressure on the quarterback. Our DB's really stepped up a lot tonight out on the perimeter making tackles; I think we tackled better today. We've got to find a way to stop them on these drives they're getting going. If we find a way to stop them on these long drives and maybe hold them to a field goal those two times, that would have really impacted our performance."

The Red Wolves ended a USA scoring threat on the Jags' first possession of the second half when Sterling Young intercepted a pass in the end zone. ASU's opening march of the third quarter covered 80 yards in 12 plays over four-and-a-half minutes, with Kennedy scoring from 12 yards out to give the Red Wolves their first lead, 7-6, of the contest. The ASU quarterback rushed four times for 40 yards on the drive.

T.J. Glover ran back the ensuing kickoff 34 yards, the first spark that would lead to a two-yard Kendall Houston touchdown run three-and-a-half minutes later that put the Jaguars back on top, 13-7. Ross Metheny and Wes Saxton hooked up twice for pick ups of eight and 17 yards, and then the former found Shavarez Smith for 21 more yards to move USA into the red zone. A pass interference call on the Red Wolves in the end zone on a throw intended for Corey Besteda put the ball on the ASU-2, leading to Houston's third score of the year.

The contest was scoreless through the first quarter-plus — although the Red Wolves held a 115-38 advantage in total offense through 15 minutes — until the Jaguars put together an 11-play scoring drive that started with a nine-yard Metheny rush on the final play of the period. He followed with a 12-yard rush to start the second, and after an offside call on ASU Jay Jones gained seven yards to move the chains again. A 16-yard completion from Metheny to Saxton put the ball on the ASU-31, and after another first down Sunanon would make the score 3-0 with a 27-yard field goal with just under 11 minutes left in the half.

With just over three minutes to go before the break, Metheny found Danny Woodson II for a 47-yard gain down the left sideline to the ASU-2; four plays and a minute-and-a-half later, Sunanon doubled the USA advantage with his second field goal of the night, this time from 19 yards out.

Qushaun Lee also had a career-high-tackle total after posting 16 stops to lead the Red Wolves. Ryan Carrethers and Young each had nine tackles, while Kyle Coleman was credited with seven.

Metheny had 305 yards of total offense in the game, with a game-high 77 yards on 17 carries and 228 more through the air. Jones added 44 yards on the ground, while Saxton had a team-leading four catches for 49 yards, Smith a game-best 77 yards on three receptions and Woodson II recorded 54 yards on a pair of catches.

"They're pretty good defensively; you've got to give Arkansas State credit," Metheny said. "I think we got behind the chains a little bit early, and we were finding ourselves in some second-and-long and third-and-long situations and those are tough to convert. So we've got to do a better job on first down and getting some positive yardage. Then we go down into the red zone, and we've got to turn three points into seven; it's as simple as that.

"If we score touchdowns instead of field goals there, we win the football game. So that's on the offense."

Three former student-athletes were recognized on the field at halftime after earning induction into the USA Athletic Hall of Fame earlier in the day — Amber Angermeier (women's soccer), Stephanie Richardson (women's basketball) and Vincent Rono (men's cross country/track and field).

The Jaguars are off next weekend, returning to action on Saturday, Nov. 16 with a 2:30 p.m. (CST) kickoff at Navy.

"It's pretty tough because we know we're a better football team than our record indicates," explained Metheny. "I don't know if there's been a team in college football before that's lost so many one- or two-point games. This one tonight is probably the most disheartening. We played pretty well on defense; our defense played phenomenal. We just didn't execute at a high enough level offensively to come out with the win, but we'll go back to work on Sunday."

"I've never seen this happen in college football like it's happening to us," Page added. "It tests how bad you want it and how bad you're willing to keep going out to practice every week and just coming out and showing up. It's tough to put behind you because it keeps coming up, but that's just one thing we're going to have to do. So we've just got to put it behind us and move on somehow."

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

—USA—

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