Lumberjacks Rout Devils at Home With Scoring Barrage, 58-13

Saturday, September 18

Nacogdoches, TX

6:00 PM

Stephen F. Austin

2-1

Mississippi Valley State

0-2

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Miss. Valley State

Stephen F. Austin

Lumberjacks Rout Devils at Home With Scoring Barrage, 58-13

9/18/2021 11:32:00 PM | Football

Box Score

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – An old football adage says to put the ball in your playmaker's hands and let them go to work. As it turns out, SFA Football has no shortage of playmakers, a fact which was on display early and often in a 58-13 demolishing of Mississippi Valley State on Saturday evening inside Homer Bryce Stadium. SFA (2-1) jumped out to a 17-0 lead and carried a 38-13 margin into the halftime intermission to improve to 2-0 at home.

After forcing a punt on the visitors first possession of the contest, SFA went to work on offense, and would hit paydirt on just their fifth offensive play. QB Trae Self found speedster Xavier Gipson wide-open for a catch, which Gipson turned into a 48-yard touchdown scamper, the first of three touchdowns he would have on the day.

On the ensuing MVSU possession, Jeremiah Walker intercepted a pass and returned it 40 yards for a touchdown, and the rout was on. After the two sides exchanged field goals to bring the score to 17-3 after one quarter of play, SFA struck again with its second pick-six of the day, this time by Myles Brooks, to extend the lead out to 24-3.

MVSU would craft together a touchdown drive of their own in response, aided immensely by a costly facemask penalty to keep the drive alive, pulling within 24-10. Self then hooked up with Gipson again, this time a pitch and catch that saw the Dallas native streak 78 yards to the endzone for his second score of the game.

After MVSU was unable to move the chains on their ensuing possession, an Orlando Fernandez punt was fielded by Gipson along the right sideline at the 30. Skirting around defenders and completely switching sidelines, Gipson ran the punt back 70 yards with a group of blockers ahead of him to score his third touchdown of the half and make the score 38-10.

MVSU would add one more field goal before the halftime intermission, but was shutout in the second half as SFA added 20 more points to its total. A pair of short touchdown runs by Robert McGrue and Tre'Jon Henderson, along with a pair of Chris Campos field goals, rounded out SFA's scoring on the day. The 58 points represented the second highest single-game posted by the Lumberjacks during the Colby Carthel era, and highest total against a Division I opponent.

Gipson finished with 207 all-purpose yards (131 receiving, 76 return) to go along with his three scores, while Josh Thompson (four catches, 84 yards) and Henderson (three catches, 65 yards) each helped SFA move downfield through the air. Three SFA quarterbacks saw action in the game, led by Self (10-18, 214 yards and two TD's). Preston Weeks (8-13-148) and Blake Short (2-4-12) also made their first appearance at QB this season.

The SFA defense performed very well in the contest, recording three turnovers, 22 tackles for loss, three sacks and two touchdowns while holding MVSU to just 211 yards of offense in the contest.