Week Five of the college football season meant HBCU squads were almost exclusively matched against conference foes. The MEAC was quiet while the SWAC and CIAA had some surprises.
Jackson State 19, Southern 14
Southern and Jackson State battles are always a treat, and Saturday's matchup was no exception. These two teams treated the 30,000-plus fans at Mumford Stadium to a great one. In our preview, we billed the game as offense (Southern) against defense (Jackson State). Well, as it turns out, both teams showed they could do a little bit of both. Jackson State racked up 355 yards against Southern, but the SU defense held its own for most of the game, until a fumble in the third quarter helped JSU take the lead with touchdown runs by Rakeem Sims and Clayton Moore. Southern would answer back with a 19-yard touchdown pass from Dray Joseph to Lee Doss, but JSU's defense held tight the rest of the way to preserve the 19-14 win.
With the win, Jackson State (3-2) ties the all-time series at 29 games each. More importantly, it stays undefeated in the SWAC (3-0). Southern drops to 2-3, and moves into a tie with Prairie View at 2-1 in the SWAC West.
Prairie View 56, Stephen F. Austin 48
It was the Jerry Lovelock Show that powered Prairie View to the win, as the junior QB accounted for seven total touchdowns. The Baltimore native threw for four touchdowns and ran for three more. Prairie View's defense still has some work to do as it allowed SFA over 800 yards of total offense, but it did come up with four turnovers to preserve the win.
Virginia State 19, Johnson C. Smith 17
VSU came into Saturday's game with two wins, already halfway to its 2012 win total in just three weeks. JCSU came in undefeated and averaging 42 points per game. Virginia State didn't totally stop JCSU's passing game as Keahn Wallace threw for over 300 yards, but they did shut down the JCSU running game, holding it to just over 1.3 yards per rush. JCSU took a slight 17-13 lead on an 11 run by Wallace with just over five minutes to go. Virginia State responded with an 11 play, 81 drive that ended with an 11-yard pass from Justin Thorpe to Willie Stubblefield as VSU held on and improved to 3-1.
Winston-Salem State 55, Virginia Union 15
WSSU came out on fire, scoring on four of its first five drives and putting the game out of reach early. WSSU quarterback Rudy Johnson continued his hot streak, throwing for four touchdowns in the first half alone. WSSU's defense also go into the act, recording four interceptions as the Rams rolled to a 55-15 win.
Norfolk State 27, Morgan State 21
Both Norfolk State and Morgan State entered Saturday's contest winless after the season's first month, but actually ended up being a pretty good game of evenly matched teams. While several Norfolk State players had their best games of the season, linebacker Lynden Trail was the unquestioned star of this game. The 6'7 LB/DE was a beast on defense, recording six tackles and picking off two passes. He also caught a touchdown pass from Tyler Clark, putting on a show for the fans in Hughes Stadium.
