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The BirminghamNews j Sunday, September 5, 2008 j 11B

BSC 28, LAGRANGE 19

Special teamspropel BSC towin in openerBy JACOB CARPENTERNews staff writer

Even before a knee injurysidelined him late in thethird quarter, Birmingham-Southern’s David Langstonhad done enough damage.

The senior wide receiverset school records by re-turning a second-quarterpunt 86 yards and theopening kick of the secondhalf 89 yards for Birming-ham-Southern’s first twotouchdowns in a 28-19,season-opening victorySaturday over LaGrange(0-1) at Panther Stadium.

“The blocking was excel-lent,” Langston said. “Ev-erybody did their assign-ment.”

L a n g s t o n s p e n t t h efourth quarter with an icepack wrapped around aknee after getting hit out ofbounds while a foot wasplanted in the ground. TheFlorida native, one of Bir-mingham-Southern’s mostexplosive playmakers, wasunsure of the severity of hisinjury.

“They said it could be atorn ACL, but there’s noguarantees,” Langston said.“I’ve been able to walk on itand slowly the pain is al-ready going away, so Ishould be back soon.”

Langston’s second-halfkickoff return was followedby a 63-yard touchdowndrive on Birmingham-Southern’s next drive,capped by sophomore run-ning back Shawn Morris’1-yard rush. Birmingham-Southern added an earlyfourth-quarter touchdownon a 41-yard drive, whichproved enough to stave offLaGrange’s 19 second-halfpoints.

Birmingham-Southerncontrolled the rushing at-tack with 265 yards, led bysenior tailback Walter Ar-rington’s 137 yards on 22carries.

“We’re not real efficient

when we were throwing theball, so we just continuedto run it and wore themdown a little bit,” Birming-ham-Southern coach EddieGarfinkle said.

Birmingham-Southernsurvived four turnovers anda potent LaGrange passingattack that amassed 331yards. Senior quarterbackDrew Carter paced La-G r a n g e , c o m p l e t i n g21-of-36 passes for 265yards with zero touch-downs and interceptions.

T h e v i c t o r y a v e n g e sback-to-back losses to La-Grange.

“It was wonderful to getback out here and take thisone away from them,”Langston said.

FILE

David Langston spentthe fourth quarterwith an ice packwrapped around aknee, but not beforesetting school recordsfor punt and kickreturns in Saturday’sgame.

AP

Jacksonville State coach Jack Crowe celebrates with his players after the Gamecocks’ double overtimewin overMississippi on Saturday in Oxford, Miss.

JACKSONVILLE STATE 49, OLEMISS 48 (2OT)

SOMETHING TO CROWE ABOUTGamecocks fight back to upset Ole Miss in double overtimeBy DOUG SEGRESTNews staff writer

OXFORD, Miss. — AsJacksonville State’s playersboogied with the marchingband, and Ole Miss fansfiled out of Vaught-Hem-m i n g w a y S t a d i u m i nstunned silence, only oneperson understood bothemotions.

Tears began welling inJack Crowe’s eyes. A floodfollowed in the locker room.

He felt the joy immedi-ately. But the JacksonvilleState coach also understoodthe agony of losing a gamethat can shake the faithful tothe foundation.

Jacksonville State’s 49-48,double-time victory againstOle Miss on Saturday isprobably the program’s big-gest since moving to Divi-sion I-AA in 1995.

That was three years afterCrowe learned how low acoach could go. As headman at Arkansas, he lost the1992 season opener to I-AAThe Citadel. By the start ofthe new week, Crowe wasout of a job.

“I’m not sure this feels asgood,” Crowe said after Sat-urday’s upset, “as that feltbad.”

Jacksonville State erased a31-10 deficit in the secondhalf, turning a blowout intoa win for the ages before acrowd of 55,768 fans.

While all the pregame at-tention was focused on Ore-gon transfer Jeremiah Maso-li’s debut at Ole Miss, thegame was won on the armof a lesser known quar-terback playing for Jackson-ville State.

Ever heard of Coty Blan-chard? He came from Che-rokee County High, wherehe was the state’s Mr. Foot-ball a year ago.

The true freshman en-tered in the third series,stuck around a good bit af-ter that, and delivered botha 30-yard touchdown passin the second overtime andthe game-winning two-point conversion toss toCalvin Middleton. The latter

was a last-second ad-lib onwhat was supposed to be ashovel pass.

With the NCAA affirmingOle Miss’ last-minute ap-peal to gain Masoli’s eligibil-ity, the Rebels dominatedthe first half, taking a 31-10lead.

Both Masoli and starterNathan Stanley were effec-tive. But the biggest differ-ence was a defensive frontthat seemed to manhandleJax State’s patchwork offen-sive line.

Crowe challenged histeam to play better, or to re-port for a full-pads workoutat the very next practice.

To be honest, Crowe ad-mitted later, he was just try-ing to get a read on histeam. “We hadn’t been ateam all fall. We hadn’tlooked like a team at a singlepractice.”

Yet it came together in thesecond half.

Ole Miss was trying to addto a 31-13 lead near the endof the third quarter whenMasoli overthrew a receiver.JSU’s Keginald Harris pulledin the interception and re-turned it 24 yards.

Blanchard returned with

the first-team offense anddrove the Gamecocks 59yards in eight plays, cuttingthe lead to 11 points.

When Ole Miss tried todeliver another knockouthaymaker on the ensuingdrive, JSU delivered a stopagain on a fourth-and-6f r o m t h e G a m e c o c k s ’33-yard line.

This time Blanchard di-rected a 67-yard drive, cut-ting the margin to 31-26.

Starting quarterback Mar-ques Ivory returned to leadthe game-tying drive, hittingAlan Bonner on a 19-yardscoring pass with 18 sec-onds left and a strike toLa’Ray Williams for the2-point conversion. He alsodirected the first score inovertime.

The rotating quarterbacksmatched passing yards (126)a n d t o u c h d o w n s ( 2 ) ,although Blanchard at-tempted 10 fewer passes.

Ivory will remain thestarter for JacksonvilleState’s home opener nextweek against Chattanooga.Blanchard will again go inon the third series. And afterthat?

“Like I tell them all thetime: What you do deter-

mines what I do,” Crowesaid.

Needless to say, the OleMiss loss sent shockwavesthrough the stands, on In-ternet message boards andproved just as palpable inthe locker room.

“This would have to beone of my toughest losses,”said Ole Miss coach Hous-ton Nutt, a Crowe assistantat Arkansas. “You do notwant to get started off likethis.”

Crowe remembers howclose Jacksonville Statecame to beating FloridaState a year ago. More im-portant, he’s never forgottenwhat The Citadel upsetmeant to his own career.

And what it could meanto Nutt down the road.

“I don’t think these cir-cumstances could be re-peated in 100 years,” Crowesaid. “I thought the samething after The Citadel.”

AP

Jacksonville State running back CalvinMiddleton (3)fights his way into the end zone for a two-pointconversion to give Jacksonville State a 49-48 winover OleMiss in double overtime.

GAME SUMMARIES

JACKSONVILLE ST. 49,MISSISSIPPI 48, 2OT

Jacksonville St. 7 3 3 21 7 8 —49Mississippi 14 17 0 3 7 7 —48

First QuarterMiss—Harris 41 pass from Stanley (Rose

kick), 13:38.Miss—Grandy 31 pass from Stanley (Rose

kick), 9:25.JvSt—Wadley 15 fumble return (Esco

kick), 2:30.Second Quarter

Miss—FG Rose 24, 13:01.JvSt—FG Esco 45, 9:01.Miss—Summers 18 pass from Stanley

(Rose kick), 7:00.Miss—E.Davis 1 run (Rose kick), :29.

Third QuarterJvSt—FG Esco 44, 5:07.

Fourth QuarterJvSt—Middleton 2 run (Esco kick), 14:56.JvSt—Shaw 4 pass from Blanchard (pass

failed), 6:17.Miss—FG Rose 35, 2:55.JvSt—Al.Bonner 19 pass from Ivory

(L.Williams pass from Ivory), :18.First Overtime

JvSt—Al.Bonner 7 pass from Ivory (Escokick).

Miss—Bolden 2 run (Rose kick).Second Overtime

Miss—E.Davis 2 run (Rose kick).JvSt—Cooper 30 pass from Blanchard

(Middleton pass from Blanchard).A—55,768.

JvSt MissFirst downs 17 23Rushes-yards 33-103 52-237Passing 252 242Comp-Att-Int 22-36-0 13-20-1

Return Yards 24 0Punts-Avg. 5-42.6 1-31.0Fumbles-Lost 1-0 2-2Penalties-Yards 7-35 0-0Time of Possession 29:36 30:24

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRUSHING—Jacksonville St., Middleton

17-67, Barksdale 6-27, Blanchard 4-16,Team 1-(minus 1), Young 1-(minus 3), Ivory4-(minus 3). Mississippi, Bolden 17-104,E.Davis 17-61, Masoli 5-29, Grandy 2-24,J.Scott 3-19, R.Scott 3-9, Whitehead 1-4,D.Thomas 1-0, Stanley 3-(minus 13).

PASSING—Jacksonville St., Ivory13-23-0-126, Blanchard 9-13-0-126. Missis-sippi, Masoli 7-10-1-109, Stanley6-10-0-133.

RECEIVING—Jacksonville St., L.Williams6-60, Middleton 5-38, Al.Bonner 3-56, Shaw3-23, Cooper 2-48, Young 2-8, Howard 1-19.Mississippi, Allen 2-37, Summers 2-32,Grandy 2-31, Logan 2-31, Harris 1-41,Bolden 1-34, Breaux 1-16, E.Davis 1-16,Whitehead 1-4.

No. 20 FLORIDA ST. 59,SAMFORD 6

Samford 0 3 3 0— 6Florida St. 7 35 7 10—59

First QuarterFSU—Pryor 4 pass from Ponder (Hopkins

kick), 3:15.Second Quarter

FSU—Reed 15 pass from Ponder (Hop-kins kick), 13:45.

FSU—Thomas 4 run (Hopkins kick),11:21.

FSU—Reid 74 punt return (Hopkins kick),8:17.

FSU—Pryor 8 pass from Ponder (Hopkinskick), 6:40.

FSU—Easterling 11 pass from Ponder(Hopkins kick), 2:23.

Sam—FG Yaw 41, :00.Third Quarter

Sam—FG Yaw 32, 7:46.FSU—T.Jones 57 run (Hopkins kick),

7:03.Fourth Quarter

FSU—Thompson 9 run (Hopkins kick),14:55.

FSU—FG Hopkins 24, 6:36.A—68,438.

Sam FSUFirst downs 19 27Rushes-yards 38-77 26-185Passing 223 296Comp-Att-Int 27-39-1 22-27-2Return Yards 7 88Punts-Avg. 7-29.0 0-0.0Fumbles-Lost 0-0 0-0Penalties-Yards 8-55 4-40Time of Possession 37:14 22:46

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRUSHING—Samford, Evans 12-39, Truss

10-29, Barnett 1-9, Sillers 1-9, Pope 1-7,Strider 2-1, Ogren 1-(minus 1), Team2-(minus 2), Taliaferro 8-(minus 14). FloridaSt., T.Jones 8-107, Thomas 8-31, Thompson3-17, Smiley 2-9, Manuel 1-8, Reid 1-8, Pon-der 2-7, Reed 1-(minus 2).

P A S S I N G — S a m f o r d , T a l i a f e r r o22-32-1-174, Lowery 5-6-0-49, Team 0-1-0-0.Florida St., Ponder 12-14-1-167, Manuel10-13-1-129.

RECEIVING—Samford, Roberson 11-96,Covington 4-56, Pope 4-51, Ogren 3-16,Evans 3-(minus 10), Truss 1-8, Fordham 1-6.Florida St., Reed 5-50, Easterling 4-56,Thompson 4-54, Pryor 3-23, Haulstead 2-40,R.Smith 1-42, Thomas 1-21, Smiley 1-6, Hag-gins 1-4.