I’ll give you the bad news first.
South Alabama had six touchdowns taken back by penalties, two by instant replay, and also allowed a 75-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter.
End of bad news.
The Jaguars set a Sun Belt Conference scoring record with an 87-10 victory over Northwestern State at Hancock Whitney Stadium on Thursday night. It was South Alabama’s first win of the season and the Major Applewhite era.
“I’m proud of how our guys played and how they responded after a loss,” Applewhite said. “In a short week, the team did an excellent job. I know people say that a lot, it sounds trite, but they did it. Our practices were good. We practiced a little more on Wednesday than we normally do the day before the game, and there were no complaints. I was proud of the guys and how the coaches had them play today.”
Applewhite likely had no complaints at the quarterback position, as Gio Lopez returned to the lineup after missing last week’s loss at Ohio State with turf toe and delivered nearly perfect passing. The redshirt freshman completed 15 of 19 passes for 254 yards and four touchdowns despite playing only 2 ½ quarters.
South Alabama (1-2) rushed for 362 yards as a team, including 143 from Fluff Bothwell and 102 from Kentrel Bullock, who combined for four touchdowns. The Jaguars totaled 620 yards on offense, just shy of the 647 yards they managed against Southern Miss a year ago.
“It was a blast,” Lopez said. “Last week was tough just watching. … It was just fun to be back out there.”
South Alabama scored two touchdowns in the first 4:02 of game time despite only having the ball on one play. Jamaal Pritchett scored a 62-yard touchdown after Northwestern State’s first punt, then Lopez scored a 39-yard touchdown through Jeremiah Webb after Jaden Voisin’s long interception return for a 14-0 lead.
Northwestern State then kicked a field goal, but South Alabama answered with a 12-yard touchdown pass from Lopez to DJ Thomas-Jones to take a 21-3 lead. The Demons (0-3) never got closer than two points again.
“That’s what we said when we came out of the locker room: set the tone, take everything personally,” Voisin said. “I think we took every attack personally. We had a realization for the season before and tonight we changed that.”
Laith Marjan’s 28-yard field goal put the team up 28-3, and then came NSU’s biggest highlight of the night. Quarterback JT Fayard found Myles Kitt-Denton on the run for a 75-yard touchdown on the final play of the first quarter, cutting South Alabama’s lead to 28-10.
The Jaguars scored four touchdowns in the second quarter: Bullock’s 1-yard run, Bothwell’s 7-yard run, Lopez’s 4-yard pass to Thomas-Jones and Bothwell’s 5-yard run. South Alabama led 52-10 at halftime, a school record for most points scored in a half.
Lopez played the first two series of the second half before giving way to backup quarterback Bishop Davenport. Bullock ran 59 yards for a touchdown on the second play of the third quarter to make it 59-10, then Lopez found Pritchett for a 10-yard touchdown that gave the Jaguars a 66-10 lead with 6:48 left in the third quarter.
“We really just wanted to get (Lopez) on the field in the second half and get him to feel like he could come out of the locker room, make some drives, make some shots, just get more of that ‘first half/second half, halftime, come back out in the third quarter’ feeling,” Applewhite said of the decision to have Lopez play for part of the second half. “Then we could get Bishop and a couple of other guys in there and build more depth in our offense.”
PJ Martin’s 4-yard touchdown run put the game at 73-10 with 2:40 left in the third quarter. The Jaguars then took the lead with 55 seconds left in the quarter on a 30-yard interception return by Chrystyile Caldwell for a touchdown.
The fourth quarter was shortened to six minutes by mutual agreement of both coaches. South Alabama managed another turnover deep in NSU territory and converted it into Jarvis Durr’s 4-yard touchdown run, an 87-10 lead and the Sun Belt’s scoring record.
South Alabama’s 87 points surpass the 83 points scored by Arkansas State against Texas Southern in 2008 and Georgia Southern against Savannah State in 2014. The Jaguars’ previous single-game scoring record was 64 points, three times against Division 2 or NAIA opponents in the program’s early years, and 59 points against a Division I team in last year’s 68 Ventures Bowl.
“That was definitely a big win for us that got the ball rolling to move on to the next game and keep it rolling,” Pritchett said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been on a team that scored 87 points, even in basketball.”
South Alabama forced a season-high four turnovers. Voisin, Caldwell and Amarion Fortenberry all had interceptions, while Julian Demby recovered a fumble.
South Alabama returns to action next week on Thursday, traveling to Appalachian State for its Sun Belt Conference opener, with the game starting at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN.
