Hornets Fall to Grambling State, 34-10
[gtxvideo vid=”00Sa03zn” playlist=”” pid=”XiOflQdH” thumb=”http://player.gtxcel.com/thumbs/00Sa03zn.jpg” vtitle=”Hornets fall to Grambling”]
ASU finished the game with 256 yards of total offense with the Hornets rushing game struggling against a strong Grambling front seven. ASU finished with 91 yards rushing on 34 attempts with Khalid Thomas leading the way with 37 yards on five carries.
Quinterrius Toppings made his first start in more than a year at quarterback and completed 17 of his 26 pass attempts for 159 yards as the Hornets finished with 256 yards of total offense.
ASU opened the scoring when freshman David Albert kicked the first field goal of his collegiate career from 33 yards out. It was ASU’s opening drive of the game, marking the third consecutive game the Hornets have scored on their opening drive.
The Hornets did hurt themselves with 12 penalties which wound up costing over 100 yards in penalties and they also had three fumbles, losing two. Those all helped stop or hurt drives which may have cost the Hornets some points.
“We played against what I consider a very confusing defense,” Head Coach Brian Jenkins said. “They did some things that caused some problems that we knew coming into the game. I thought we did some things early and once again we hurt ourselves. We caused our own team-inflicted wounds. We just have to keep plugging.”
“I’m disappointed in the loss and in the position we’re in, but I’m not discouraged. My staff and I knew it was a lot of work when we came here. Only thing we are going to do is hold on to the rope, we are going to hold on to it and we are going to keep going. I’ve got to look at the positives and the positives are our guys played all the way to the end.”
ASU (0-3/0-2 SWAC) ended their scoring and the game scoring when Ellis Richardson ran in from seven yards out with 2:42 left in the game.
Johnathan Williams led the Tigers (1-2/1-0 SWAC) throwing for 284 yards and four touchdowns while completing 20 of his 37 pass attempts. With the Tigers coming out of the locker room he led GSU on three scoring drives in the third period breaking the game over.
He threw two second half touchdowns, one to Chad Williams from 36 yards out and another to Martiz Carter from 11 yards. Wrapped around those touchdowns were a two 22-yard Marc Orozco field goals.
Once again, ASU’s Kourtney Berry continues his impressive season from his linebacker position as he finished the game with a game-high 19 tackles, which is one off his career record of 20 tackles which came last season against this same Grambling team.
Dominique Jackson continues his strong first season as a starting linebacker. He finished the game with five total tackles and three of those were sacks.
GSU went into the locker room at halftime sporting a 14-3 lead powered by two touchdown passes from Williams. After Albert opened the scoring with his field goal in the first quarter to give ASU a 3-0 lead, the Tigers were able to score twice in the second quarter.
GSU’s first score came on a 19 yard pass from Williams to Hunter and the second came just a little over four minutes later when Williams hit Ka’Jandre Domino from seven yards out to make the score 14-3.
“Once again I’m impressed with my team because they continue to believe in each other and we played a good football team in Grambling,” Jenkins said. “Coach Fobbs is a good, bright coach; he does a phenomenal job with his team. They’ve vastly improved from last year when I faced them. We got beat by a better football team and I’m not afraid to say that. I have a lot of respect for Coach Fobbs and his program and his coaches and the way they are doing things. They just flat out beat us and there is no excuse for that.”
The Hornets will be on the road next week when they travel to Mississippi to face Mississippi Valley State. The game will be the first of four games in 20 days for ASU. The kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. and can be heard on the ASU Hornets Sports Network.
