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MOBILE, Ala. – Jordan Chunn scored twice in the final quarter to cap a pair of 80-yard drives and help lead Troy to a 28-21 come-from-behind Sun Belt Conference football victory over the University of South Alabama Thursday in the "Battle For The Belt" at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
The Trojans (6-1, 4-0 Sun Belt) had an 18-play drive on their only possession of the third quarter that used eight minutes and 15 seconds of clock, but Ryan Kay's 40-yard field-goal attempt was wide left. When Troy got the ball back early in the fourth quarter, it went on an eight-play, 83-yard march that resulted in Chunn's two-yard touchdown run, and when John Johnson threw back to Brandon Silvers for the two-point conversion the score was tied 21-21 with just over 11 minutes remaining in the contest.
Troy marched 55 yards on nine plays on its next possession, but the Jaguars (3-4, 0-4 SBC) recorded a takeaway when Chason Milner forced a fumble that Randy Allen recovered on the USA-40. The Trojan defense answered by forcing a three-and-out, getting the ball back at Troy's 20-yard line with two minutes and 13 seconds to go. Silvers found Tevaris McCormick for a 24-yard gain down the left sideline and two plays later he hit Sidney Davis for 42 more, leaving Chunn to carry it in from one yard out with a minute and 20 seconds left in regulation to give Troy its first lead if the night.
"Troy wore us down a little bit with their long drives, especially the long drive in the third quarter, which was probably about an eight- or nine-minute drive," said USA head coach Joey Jones. "It almost took up the whole quarter. I thought that put our guys on their heels a little bit. They were able to find some holes running the ball. The running back ran a zone play to the boundary and they found a little honey hole there.
"Our defense played hard but they just got worn down in the second half."
On the final drive of the game, Dallas Davis ran for 17 yards with the Jags facing third-and-18 and Dami Ayoola followed with a 10-yard gain to keep the possession alive, but after a 35-yard pass from Davis to Kevin Kutchera Blace Brown was able to strip the ball free and Kamryn Melton recovered for the Trojans on their 24-yard line as time expired.
Chunn finished with 143 yards on 25 carries, while Silvers was 28-of-42 passing for 395 yards and a score. Emanuel Thompson led all players with seven catches for 74 yards, Johnson caught six balls for 72 and Chunn added 34 yards on five receptions. Troy finished with an opponent season-high 585 yards of total offense.
"When you think about it offensively, we knew we were moving the ball," observed Troy head coach Neal Brown. "I thought they had a really good plan for us in the first half and kept us off balance. What we were doing was we were dinking them some and hitting them with some plays, but they were hitting us for negative plays and getting us in third-and-long. They were winning the battles on the outside.
"In the second half we really came out and changed our game plan. We got away from our base run. Assistant coaches, a lot of credit to them. We ran more outside zones and we got them off balance a bit. We got back in control of the game in the second half."
Chunn caught a pass out of the backfield from Silvers and appeared to take it 79 yards down the left sideline on the opening play of the game, giving the Trojans an early lead, but he was ruled out of bounds at the Troy-48 following a review. Instead, on the very next play, Devon Earl stripped the ball after a 19-yard completion and ran it back 28 yards into Troy territory. The Jags were flagged for a penalty on a first-down pass from Davis to Gerald Everett, but Xavier Johnson followed with a 43-yard run to set up his leap over the goal line from one yard out, and instead USA was up 7-0 less than a minute later.
With under five minutes to go in the opening quarter, Kay dropped a punt snap inside the five-yard line and was stopped by Diantae Thomas at the Troy-9. Johnson carried twice, diving in for the score on a five-yard run to double the Jaguar advantage with three-and-a-half minutes left in the period.
He would finish with 58 yards on just six carries, but left the game due to injury late in the period and did not return.
The two teams traded three-and-outs, and on the final play of the quarter Troy cut its deficit in half when Silvers connected with McCormick — who would finish the contest with four catcehs for a game-best 127 yards — for an 80-yard touchdown. Kay tacked on a 47-yard field goal, capping a 50-yard march that began with a 37-yard run from Chunn, to make the score 14-10 in USA's favor four-and-a-half minutes before the intermission, but the Jaguars answered with a five-play, 75-yard drive that took one second less than two minutes off the clock with Davis finding Everett for a 19-yard touchdown pass. The biggest play of the possession was a 42-yard completion to Kutchera that moved the ball inside the Trojan 15-yard line.
Kay converted another field goal, this time from 28 yards out with 30 seconds second to go, leaving South with a 21-13 edge at the break.
The Trojan defense held the Jags to 340 total yards while limiting USA to just 3-of-13 third-down conversions. Terris Lewis led Troy with six tackles, and Junior Gnonkonde supplied five — all unassisted — with one for loss as well as a pass broken up. Demetrius Cain, William Lloyd and Baron Poole had five stops a piece as well, with Poole posting two behind the line of scrimmage and Cain credited with 1½ sacks.
Davis was 11-of-20 passing for 195 yards, finding Tyrone Williams four times for 50 yards while Kutchera and Everett had three catches each for 92 and 49 yards, respectively. Tyreis Thomas rushed for 41 yards and Ayoola contributed 34 as South finished with 145 yards on the ground.
In addition to his first-quarter takeaway, Earl paced all players with a career-high-tying nine tackles. Roman Buchanan, Jeremy Reaves and Tyree Turner posted eight stops apiece — a career-best total for the latter — and Nigel Lawrence made seven tackles also. Allen, who entered play leading the conference in tackles for loss, recorded another 1½, breaking up a pass as well while ending up with four stops.
"First of all, it was one heck of a college football game," Jones stated. "I thought out kids played really hard. A lot of good things happened on both sides. Troy was able to finish with a long drive at the end to win the ball game. We had a chance there at the end, it's just one of those games that came down to the last minute. I'm proud of our players. They went up against a team that is leading the conference and had a chance to win it. They played their guts out and when you see that, I can live with it. Sure we made a couple of mistakes and some injuries that popped up on us. We lost Kalen Jackson, Xavier Johnson and Curtis Williams at tackle. We lost four starters out there and we had to patch things up, but our kids kept fighting."
"I thought this was a great college football game, great atmosphere," added Brown. "I thought South played well, we did well. I thought there was a different flow at different times in the game. This game meant something, it's a rivalry game."
With the win, the Trojans snapped a two-game losing streak in the series and now hold a 3-2 advantage all-time over the Jaguars.
South will next play host to Georgia State on Saturday, Oct. 29, on Homecoming weekend, with the contest slated to kick off at 4 p.m. (CDT).
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).
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