ITTA BENA, Miss. – The first home football game of 2018 for Mississippi Valley State University saw the Delta Devils fight hard Saturday before falling 56-20 to in-state rival Alcorn State.
 
Chris Fowler and Dejerric Bryant combined to throw for 178 yards for Valley (0-3, 0-1 Southwestern Athletic Conference), with each quarterback accounting for a touchdown.
 
Alcorn State quarterback Noah Johnson ran for 139 yards and three touchdowns, while also throwing for 203 yards and completing 18 out of 23 passes.
 
Steven McIntosh led the Valley receiving corps with five catches for 80 yards, while Booker Chambers caught three passes for 70 yards. Chambers also had a 90-yard punt return for a touchdown that cut Alcorn State's lead to 27-14 with 10:36 remaining in the third quarter.
 
Quinn McElfresh caught three passes for 11 yards for the Delta Devils, including a three-yard touchdown catch from Bryant late in the fourth quarter.
 
On the defensive side of the ball, Jemaurri Bailey and Farrean Toney each had an interception for the Delta Devils, while Jerry Garner had seven tackles, including two for loss with one sack. Patrick Harbin totaled 11 tackles for Valley, while Bailey and Tadarius Davis each had 10 tackles.
 
Valley showed promise in the early stages of the game, as the Delta Devils were the first team to put points on the scoreboard. After each team traded punts on their opening possession, Valley pieced together a five-play, 59-yard drive that was capped with Fowler scrambling for a four-yard touchdown. Fowler had an 18-yard run to the 28-yard line; that play was helped by a personal foul penalty against Alcorn. A 10-yard run by Kelvin Lockett to the Alcorn four-yard line set up Fowler's touchdown.
 
On the first play of Alcorn's next drive, Toney intercepted a pass from Johnson to give the Delta Devils another drive starting on their own 41-yard line. This time, however, Alcorn ended the drive with an interception of its own. The four-time SWAC East champions seized momentum from there and would take a 27-7 lead into halftime.
 
The Delta Devils will have a couple of weeks to regroup before their next contest, a non-conference game at Bethune-Cookman on Sat., Oct. 6.