BATON ROUGE, La. -- Saturday's game at Southern University resembled Mississippi Valley State's previous game against Grambling in more ways than one.
Like they did against GSU, the Delta Devils burst out the gate with a commanding lead -- this time 13-0 at Southern. But just like against Grambling, Southern caught fire and stormed back to defeat Valley.
The Jaguars scored 44 straight points -- including 30 in the second quarter -- to end the Delta Devils' season with a 44-13 win at Mumford Stadium. With the loss, Valley ends the season with a 2-9 (1-8 SWAC) record.
MVSU quarterback Quantavius Peterson put his team on the scoreboard first using a 9-yard touchdown run, but the ensuing extra point was block. Then, late in the first quarter, Peterson connected with freshman receiver Joshua Banks on a 9-yard touchdown pass to put the Delta Devils up 13-0.
Everything looked to be going Valley's way until Southern woke up and pounded out 30 second quarter points. Southern's Brian McCann scored a pair of touchdowns and Jaleel Richardson recovered a MVSU fumble in the endzone. With just 12 seconds left in the first quarter, the Jaguars capitalized off an interception and capped off their final drive of the first half with a 12-yard scoring run by Lenard Tillery.
Then, Southern added touchdown runs in the third and fourth quarter to seal off the victory.
Valley played three quarterbacks on the day, with Peterson getting the start. The Shelby, Miss. native completed 10-of-21 passes for 133 yards with a touchdown an an interception. Carl Davis completed 3-of-5 passes for 50 yards and Patrick Ivy was unable to complete either of his two pass attempts.
Some positive news, however, did come from Saturday's game for Valley. In the final game of his career, Julian Stafford became the fifth player in school history to gain 1,000 receiving yards in a season -- joining Tyrone Timmons, Dave McDaniels, Joe Thomas and Jerry Rice. Entering the game, the Memphis native needed just 19 yards. He finished with five catches for 56 yards.
Joshua Banks had three receptions for 50 yards and a touchdown, the first of his career. Joshua Rice chipped in three receptions for 32 yards and Keenan Daniels had a 47-yard catch.
Defensively, Terrance Hudson had a game-high 11 tackles while Sean Fugate picked up a sack. Also, Khalil Young had four tackles and a 32-yard fumble recovery.
