Alabama State pushes past Miss. Valley

If the Alabama State offense plays like it did in the fourth quarter Saturday consistently, watch out.

ASU beat Mississippi Valley 42-21 on Saturday to bounce back after a rough loss to South Carolina State. ASU scored three fourth-quarter touchdowns to turn a close game into a convincing win.

Freshman quarterback Ryan Nettles had the best outing of his young career, throwing for three touchdowns and running for another in the win.

The Hornets clung to a 21-17 lead early in the fourth quarter before capitalizing on a short field with Nettles 14-yard touchdown scamper to put distance between the two teams. A few minutes later he connected with Jahod Booker for a 14 yard touchdown pass to put the Delta Devils down by three scores.

Mississippi Valley made Alabama State work for it for the first three quarters. It led 10-3 after one quarter before Nettles threw his first two touchdown passes. Jalani Eason scored the game’s first touchdown on a quarterback keeper. He later passed for another touchdown, hitting Malik Myers from 7 yards out.

Nettles completed 20 of 34 pass attempts for 305 yards, both career-highs. He was sacked three times and picked off once. He also rushed for 66 yards, 53 of them coming on one run. Jeremiah Hixon led ASU with five catches for 93 yards and a score.

On the other side of the ball, Eason carried Valley. He finished with 256 total yards, including 125 on the ground. Valley had just 315 total yards of offense.

Alabama State improves to 3-2 and now sets its sights to take on an Alabama A&M team that just knocked off Jackson State. The winner of this game will likely have the leg up in the race for the SWAC East title.