TROY, Ala. – Jamontez Woods ran for two touchdowns and Tez Johnson added another in the first half Saturday as Troy held off a second-half comeback by the University of South Alabama to pick up a 31-24 football victory in the annual "Battle For The Belt" at Veterans Memorial  Stadium.

KJ Robertson returned an interception for a score as well as the Trojans (5-4, 3-2 Sun Belt) led 31-14 at the break.  Carlton Martial led all players with 14 stops while TJ Harris and Jordan Anthony added 10 apiece for Troy.

Desmond Trotter, who came on in relief of an injured Jake Bentley on the opening series of the game, accounted for three touchdowns including going 20-of-32 passing for 138 yards and two scores for the Jaguars (5-4, 2-4 SBC).  Terrion Avery rushed for 75 yards and added 31 on five catches — including a pair for touchdowns — while Lincoln Sefick caught nine balls for 55 yards.

A.J. DeShazor Jr. and Quentin Wilfawn paced Souths defense with nine tackles each.

Troy 31, South Alabama 24 (final stats)
South Alabama/Troy photo gallery

GAME FACTS
-Trotter capped a 10-play, 88-yard march to open the contest with a four-yard touchdown run to put the Jags up 7-0, but the Trojans responded with a touchdown and a field goal to go ahead 10-7 at the end of the first quarter.
-Troy broke open the game with three second-quarter touchdowns — including scoring twice in a 41-second span after Robertson returned an interception 32 yards — while taking a 31-14 lead at the half.
-South used another long scoring drive, this time going 76 yards in 19 plays, with Avery's three-yard touchdown catch on fourth-and-goal making the score 31-21 with just over a minute left in the third period.
-Diego Guajardo made it a one-score game with a 34-yard field goal midway through the final quarter, but the Jags' final possession ended on downs inside its own 30-yard line with a minute-and-a-half to go in the game.
-The Jaguars outgained the Trojans by a 335-208 margin after limiting Troy to just 89 yards and five first downs in the second half.
-USA finished 6-of-8 on fourth-down conversions, holding the ball for nearly 36-and-a-half minutes while running 25 more plays than the Trojans.

NOTES
-Troy has now claimed the last four match-ups in the series.
-It was the first time the "Battle For The Belt" has been decided by one score since the 2016 season.
-With a 27-yard catch on South's opening possession, junior Jalen Tolbert went over 1,000 yards receiving for the second consecutive year.
-It was the second week in a row that Avery has caught a touchdown pass as he became the first running back in school history to record multiple receptions for scores in a game.
-Tré Young is now tied for the team lead with three interceptions after recording the Jags' only takeaway in the contest, and he also posted a career-best seven stops.
-Wilfawn has now led USA or shared team-high honors in tackles in three of the last four outings after coming up one tackle shy of reaching double figures in the category for the second week in a row.
-DeShazor Jr. equaled his previous season high in stops first recorded at ULM two weeks ago.
-Both Sefcik's catch and receiving yard totals were the highest of his career in his first year with the program.
-Wy'Kevious Thomas has been credited with at least one assist behind the line of scrimmage in five of the last seven contests.
-Trotter's 43 rushing yards were the most he has gained since running for 58 in a season-ending victory over Arkansas State on Nov. 29, 2019.
-It was the second time in the last three weeks that Jack Brooks has averaged better than 50 yards per punt — he finished the day with a career-best 53 average on three kicks — while it was the first game he has had multiple efforts end up inside the opposition's 20-yard line since the Jaguars' Sun Belt opener Oct. 2 against Louisiana.
-With his fourth-quarter field goal, Guajardo became the third kicker in program history to connect on 10 or more field goals in multiple seasons.

THEY SAID IT
South Alabama head coach Kane Wommack
On his thoughts on the game: "Obviously there was tremendous fight from our guys. This is a team [Troy] a year ago that got up on us and had a commanding lead at halftime. This year, we fought back and I think that's praise for our players, but you can't turn the ball over in the first half like we did, including one for a touchdown. You can't give up some of the silly runs that we did. We only gave up 107 yards rushing the entire game, but 98 of it came in the first half. They only had nine yards rushing in the second half. We talk about this all the time, but building consistency in this program is the number one thing we have to do. That means consistency through every single quarter, every single play and every single drive. You're never going to play perfect football, but you have to play more consistent than we did tonight."
On what Troy was doing offensively in the first half to cause issues: "They did a good job with their outside zone game. I think [Kimani Vidal] is the best back in our league in my opinion. He does a tremendous job of knifing through [the hole]. He's so powerful, I'm very impressed with him. He had some really tough, gutsy runs along with some of their other backs. We made some adjustments, but we weren't executing. When they're running outside zone, you have to stay in your gaps and stay laterally sound. We got gapped a couple of times and that can't happen. We fixed it and it should have been fixed even earlier, but that's part of our inconsistency right now as a program. Can we come out of the gates and operate at a high level? We did not do that in the early part of the game."
On Desmond Trotter's play coming off the bench: "That's a tough thing for a backup quarterback who really hasn't played any significant reps [this season]. Jake Bentley's played so well. He got hit and his knee was banged up. Dez stepped in and did a good job. Obviously, you never want to turn the ball over — especially for a touchdown — but at the same time that gutsy performance in the second half was impressive. To be able to operate multiple drives down the field, not just ones with explosive plays, is a credit to him. I think Desmond Trotter has gotten so much better from where he was a year ago."

Junior WR Jalen Tolbert
On losing Jake Bentley early, but the offense rallying in the second half: "Shout out to Desmond Trotter, he waited his turn and came in played a tremendous game for us. We were down bad and he gave us a chance to come back and win the game. I'm proud of him and excited to get to work with him this coming week. Jake has been leading our team in a positive way all year, and to have him go out that early [in the game] kind of punched us in the face and opened our eyes. We were having to run different things and look at things differently since our game plan changed. Having him not in there was big at first for us, but as the game went on Dez led us and put us in position to come out with a different ending."
On confidence in the offense moving forward: "We have three tough opponents coming up and we're excited to be able to go and have a good week of practice with Dez, where we can get plays molded to his type of game. That may be a little bit more running, but you never know. We just need to continue to work. Of course, this [loss] hurt us because we wanted to bring the belt back and achieve bowl eligibility, but we just need to work. That's the only thing we can do now."

Sophomore QB Desmond Trotter
On how he felt he played: "The first half, I just stared off real slow. I had to get into a groove and play like I did last year. I had to go back to my roots and get comfortable back there. I knew the defense was going to get a stop coming out in the second half. We just had to go down and score and make it a 10-point game going into the fourth quarter. I just have to execute better and make the plays."
On if this will give him confidence going forward: "I have confidence. It's my time up, so I just have to be able to execute and do what I can to help the team win."

Junior ILB Quentin Wilfawn
On the team continuing to fight: "We did a great job coming out in the second half. We played hard. Dez came in and did a great job and had the team rallying behind him. Overall though, we had too many mistakes in the first half and they came back to bite us."
On the defensive performance in the first half: "We had some miscues as a whole in all three aspects of the game. We just weren't executing."

Senior S Tré Young
On fighting back in the second half: "We came out kind of slow, but we executed like the 'Swarm D' is supposed to in the second half. At the end of the day though, we can't come out flat like we did. We have to get after it from the start."
On his second half interception changing the momentum: "It did. I tried to do what I could to make a play for my team so that we could get the momentum. Like I said, we just have to start out faster than we did tonight. We can't shoot ourselves in the foot."

Up next: The Jaguars are next in action on Saturday when they visit Appalachian State, with kickoff in Boone set for 1:30 p.m. (CST).

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

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