Troy University Athletics
Troy University
Western Kentucky
Trojans Clamp Down On WKU For Victory
11/7/2009 11:00:00 PM | Football
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Anyone who listened to the Troy Trojans as they prepared for a trip to face winless Western Kentucky on Saturday understood that the Trojans knew they would be in for a fight.
They got exactly what they expected.
Fortunately for the Trojans, freshman running back Shawn Southward picked this game to have his breakout performance, tying a school record with four touchdown runs to propelled Troy to a 40-20 victory.
“Southward will really take the ball, stick his foot in the ground and get rough with it,” Troy head coach Larry Blakeney said. “He found a few creases when we started running him a little bit. I'm really happy for him. I like what I see.”
Southward, a Florence, Ala., native also became the first Troy back of the season to break the 100-yard barrier with a career-best 19 carries for 139 yards. He scored on touchdown runs of two, one, 10 and 39 yards to help the Trojans (7-2, 6-0 Sun Belt) to the win.
He was the first Troy runner to break the 100-yard mark since DuJuan Harris did it against the same Hilltoppers team on November 8, 2008. The four TD rushes tied a school mark set by Phillip Jones against Jacksonville State in 1997. All of that in his first collegiate start.
“I wasn't nervous [for my first start],” Southward said. “I didn't expect [to have as big of a game], but I'm happy with it.”
The victory runs Troy's winning streak to seven games, the longest since the Trojans moved to the FBS level in 2001. Western Kentucky (0-9, 0-5) dropped its 17th straight game, the longest active losing streak in the FBS.
WKU looked like anything but a winless team to open the game, driving 74 yards in 11 plays for an easy touchdown against the Trojans. Quarterback Kawaun Jakes keyed the drive with his arm and feet, totaling 12 yards through the air and 27 on the ground, including the final seven for the score.
It was the first touchdown the Trojans had allowed an opponent to score on their first possession since Nov. 1, 2008, when ULM pulled the trick, a stretch of 14 games.
Troy's offense seemed unphased by the Hilltoppers' quick start, using just eight plays to even the score on a 10-yard pass from Levi Brown to Zack Marcum. The big play in the drive was a 25-yard pass play to Jason Bruce, giving the Trojans a first and goal.
“It was pretty special,” Marcum said. “I was hoping I would get a chance to make a play down close to the end zone and I got it on the first drive. It was pretty cool to score in front of a lot of my family.”
The scoring strike tied Brown for former Troy QB Mike Turk for fifth on the career TD pass list with 30. The senior signal caller extended his streak of consecutive attempts without an interception to 258, which leaves him just 13 pass attempts shy of the NCAA single-season record of 271 set by Fresno State's Trent Dilfer in 1993.
Brown finished the game completing 20-of-33 passes for 251 yards and a touchdown. He also ran three times for 41 yards, highlighted by a career-best 37 yard scamper in the fourth quarter on a zone read play.
The teams exchanged punts to run out the first quarter, but the Hilltoppers struck quickly again early in the second. Jakes again keyed the WKU drive with his running and passing, hitting Marcus Vasquez on an 18-yard scoring strike with 13:05 left in the half for a 14-7 WKU lead. The redshirt freshman kept the drive alive with a 16-yard gain on third and 14 and a 30-yard pass on third and 13.
Troy dodged a bullet when WKU was offsides on the kickoff, voiding a Trojans muff that would have given the Hilltoppers the ball deep in Troy territory. The second kickoff try went out of bounds setting the Trojans up near midfield.
Brown hit Jerrel Jernigan for gains of 11 and 21, followed by a screen pass to Harris for 18 yards to the WKU nine. Back-to-back penalties against the Hilltoppers moved the ball to the two, where freshman Southward finished with a TD run to tie the game at 14.
Jernigan finished the game with game-high six receptions for 81 yards. Bruce (44 yards) and Marcum (28 yards) had three catches apiece.
After another exchange of punts, Jakes hit another big play with a QB draw for 54 yards, but the Troy defense stiffened and forced a WKU field goal. Casey Tinius was good from 29 yards with 5:03 left in the half, putting the Hilltoppers back on top 17-14.
The Trojans caught a break after being forced to punt on the next possession when Jake Gaebler fumbled the Will Goggans rugby put inside the Hilltopper 10-yard line. Xavier Lamb recovered for the Trojans at the five.
After a pass into the end zone was knocked down, the Trojans pulled Brown, put Jernigan in the shotgun and ran an option left. Jernigan's pitch to Harris was perfect, and the junior went into the end zone to give Troy a 21-17 lead.
WKU appeared ready to settle for a four-point halftime deficit, but Jakes struck again, hitting Gaebler for a 35-yard gain to the Troy 35.The Hilltoppers followed that with a career-best 43-yard field goal from Tinius to cut the Trojans' halftime lead to 21-20.
With Troy clinging to just a one-point lead, Southward went to work toting the ball 15 times in the second half for 126 yards after the break. He punched in a one-yard score on fourth down to give Troy a 28-20 lead with 7:13 left in the third quarter.
The freshman added another score with 2:28 remaining in the third, this time from 10 yards out. A botched snap on the extra point left score at 34-20. Southward added the final nail in WKU's coffin with a 38-yard touchdown run with 6:30 left in the fourth quarter. Michael Taylor couldn't convert the PAT, but Troy led 40-20.
The Troy defense, which surrendered 20 points and 310 yards in the first half, posted a shutout of the Hilltoppers in the second half, holding WKU to just 112 yards. Defensive ends Brandon Lang (game-high 13 tackles, including 3.5 for loss and two sacks) and Mario Addison (five tackles, 2.5 TFL) had big hands in putting the clamps on Jakes and the Hilltoppers after intermission.
“We came out and had to adjust to how they played,” Addison said. “We are used to a quarterback staying in the pocket, then we noticed that he would move a lot east-to-west and scramble up the middle. We had to adjust to it and slow him down.
Jakes finished with 121 rushing yards and threw for 185, but had just 11 rushing and 26 passing yards in the second half. Addison, who is arguably the fastest of Troy's defensive ends, was a big part of that success.
“Coach Butler put me in a couple of times just to get some fresh legs in the game,” Addison said. “That way I could run east-and-west with the quarterback. I'm glad he put me in and I think I proved to him that I can go the distance. I think he's proud of me.”
The Trojans piled up 477 yards of total offense in the game, to 422 for WKU, despite having the ball for just 24 minutes and five seconds in the game. The Trojans also played their first turnover free game of the year in notching the victory.
The Trojans will be on the road again next Saturday when they travel to Fayetteville, Ark., to play the Arkansas Razorbacks. That game is scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. start and will be televised on CSS.
Troy Game Notes
- Troy captains were wide receiver Zack Marcum, quarterback Levi Brown, defensive end Cameron Sheffield and defensive back Courtland Fuller.
- The Trojans won the opening coin toss and deferred to the second half.
- WKU's touchdown on the opening drive of the game was the first touchdown the Trojans had surrendered on the first possession of a game in 2009. It's the first time since 11/1/08 at ULM that Troy allowed an opening possession touchdown, a span of 14 games.
- The early strike by the Hilltoppers put Troy down 7-0 early in the first quarter. It marked the first time since the Trojans trailed FIU 10-7 on October 17.
- Freshman running back Shawn Southward made his first career start and made it count. The Florence, Ala. native became the first Troy player to rush for three touchdowns in a game since former Trojan Kenny Cattouse accomplished the feat against Louisiana-Lafayette on September 21, 2007.
- Southward tied a Troy record with four touchdown runs. The record was set by Phillip Jones against Jacksonville State in 1997.
- Coming into Saturday's game, Troy had 17 scoring drives of two minutes or less – the fifth best total in the nation. The Trojans added four drives in the game against WKU to increase their season total to 21.
- Levi Brown's first quarter touchdown pass tied him with former Troy quarterback Mike Turk for fifth on the all-time list with 30 touchdown passes.
- Carvel Jones' return of the 2nd half opening kick-off was the first of his career. He's the seventh different player for Troy to return a kick-off in 2009.
- Senior signal caller Levi Brown stretched his streak of consecutive attempts without an interception to 258, the second longest active streak in the nation.
- With the win over WKU, Troy extended its winning streak to seven games. The streak is the longest FBS winning streak since the school moved from FCS in 2001.
- For the first time in 2009, the Trojans did not commit a turnover. The Trojans did not turn it over on three occassions in 2008. All-time, Troy is 26-4-1 when not committing a turnover.
