Box Score

Malcolm Cyrus culminated a career-day with a seven yard run in overtime to propel Alabama State to a 48-42 win over Prairie View in a game featuring the top two offenses in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC).

"Obviously this is a big win for us," Head Coach Reggie Barlow said. "It's another win in the conference leading into our bye week. It's tough to lose a game going into a bye week so it was good to get this one."

The game featured five ties, seven lead changes, 90 points, 185 offensive plays and 1,324 yards before ASU could claim the victory in the first overtime period.

"Offensively we thought we would be able to score on them, but they are a high-powered offense as well and we knew it would be a challenge. We did some positive things on defense, unfortunately with the speed they were moving the ball and making plays they were able to score."

The Hornets were able to pull out the win despite going into the game with injuries to starting quarterback Daniel Duhart, linebacker Daerius Washington and offensive lineman Robert Roquemore and Tovar Allen.

"Next up is our motto around here," Barlow said. "With all of those guys being hurt going into the game and all of the injuries that occurred during the game, it was just a great all-around effort from our guys."

Cyrus finished the game with 241 yards rushing on 24 carries with two scores. He finished with 301 total yards as he caught four passes for 60 yards. His carry and yardage total along with his 80 yard touchdown run were all career-highs.

Quinterius Toppings stepped into the quarterback role after Favor was injured and completed 11 of his 18 pass attempts for 157 yards and a score. He led ASU on five scoring drives in making his first appearance of the season and his career.

ASU finished with 639 yards of total offense. The Hornets rushed for 346 yards rushing; marking the first time they have rushed for over 300 yards in a game, but continued their streak of rushing for over 200 yards in each game this year. The Hornets passed for 293 yards completing 20 of their 31 passes and also throwing two touchdown passes.

Defensively Leland Baker led ASU with a game and career-high 17 tackles. He also had 3.5 tackles behind the line of scrimmage (-11 yards) and had 1.5 sacks (-8 yards).

Nicholas Martin had 13 tackles, Deandra Rashada 12 and Michael Showers and Deontrelle Silmon had 10 apiece.

ASU finished the game with 13 tackles behind the line of scrimmage (-52 yards) and 5.0 sacks (-35 yards). PVAMU quarterback Jerry Lovelocke entered the game only being sacked four times the entire season.

Over the course of the first half the Hornets lost Arsenio Favor to an injury after completing nine of his 13 passes for 136 yards and a score. Isaiah Crowell went down in the first half as well leading to the accomplishments of Cyrus. Another offensive lineman, Matthew Bates went down.

In the second half Silmon, who was filling in for Washington at linebacker and had nine first half tackles, went down early in the third quarter and did not go back in.

After coming out at halftime with a tie score at 21, ASU scored two touchdowns to take a 35-21 lead. The first came on Cyrus's career-long 80 yard run and the next coming a little over three minutes later when Isaiah Crowell scored from a yard out.

PVAMU scored twice to even the game at 35. Right before the end of the third quarter Courtney Brown caught a six yard scoring pass from Lovelocke, who finished the game with 533 yards passing. PVAMU then score again when Lovelock hit Jacoby Anderson from 10 yards out.

ASU regained the lead with 7:48 left in the game when defensive lineman Justin Mitchell picked up a Lovelocke fumble and rambled 40 yards giving ASU a 42-35 lead.

After an exchange of punts, PVAMU took over on their own five yard line with 3:32 left in the game and drove 95 yards to score the tying touchdown with just 20 seconds left in the game. The final score came on a four yard pass to Brown. The play was made possible after a controversial fourth down play which saw the Hornets knock down the pass on the five yard line and as ASU celebrated a flag was thrown by the back linesman for pass interference giving PVAMU new life.

PVAMU had the ball first in the overtime period which saw ASU's defense force a 36 yard field goal attempt which went wide right. From there ASU drove the ball down to the seven where Cyrus' run finished the game.

The first half started off just as advertised. Prairie View took the opening kickoff and went right down the field and took a 7-0 lead on Lovelocke's one yard scoring run.

ASU came right back down the field and scored when Crowell scored from 33 yards out to even the score. It only took the Hornets three plays to travel to 79 yards to even the score at seven.

The Panthers pushed the score to 14-7 just one play later when Anderson took a swing pass from Lovelocke 73 yards for the score.

ASU scored to even the score at 14 on Favor's pass to Marcus Gamble from seven yards out with 4:28 still left in the first quarter.

After ASU lost Favor and Crowell to injuries, third-string and true- freshman quarterback Quinterius Toppings entered the game and hit Earl Lucas from 24 yards out to give the Hornets their first lead of the game 21-14.

Prairie View was able to even the score with 4:14 left in the first half on a Courtney Brown one yard scoring run, sending the game into the locker room at halftime even at 21.

Both teams racked up the offense with PVAMU finishing the half with 393 total yards and ASU finished with 367 yards. Not only did ASU lose their starting quarterback and running back in the opening half, they also had two turnovers and a missed field goal on the final play of the half.

"There were a lot of big time performances on our team," Barlow said. "Malcolm Cyrus did a great job, QT (Quinterius Toppings) came in and I was telling the coaches how comfortable the team was with him. There wasn't any panic. Just a good overall team effort."

ASU will take a week off before heading to heading to Birmingham where they will face Alabama A&M in the 72^nd State Farm Magic City Classic on Saturday Oct. 26 at 2:30 p.m.