By T. Scott Boatright
GRAMBLING — A win to snap a two-game losing skid is a sweet thing for a football team.
Winning on Homecoming makes it even sweeter.
And that’s what made Grambling State’s 31-21 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff Saturday afternoon at Eddie G. Robinson Memorial Stadium a little more palatable than most victories.
The win moved GSU to 4-3 overall and more importantly, 1-2 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s West Division. GSU started its divisional season with a pair of two-point losses — 36-34 in five overtimes against Prairie View A&M before falling 17-15 last weekend to Jackson State.
“It’s a win,” Joseph said of the victory over UAPB. “We’ve got to get more. You can’t stay around here if you get just one SWAC win. Trust me, I know.
“But it’s a good win. Any win is a good win. It wasn’t clean, but it was a conference win, and that makes it a good thing.”
Grambling struck first on the scoreboard after Marquis Harris blocked a UAPB punt to set the Tigers up at the Golden Lions’ 21-yard line. Then GSU quarterback Myles Crawley handed off the ball to Tre Bradord three straight times culminating with a seven yard touchdown run that put the Tigers on top 7-0 exactly six minutes into the contest.
But the Golden Lions soon countered with a score of their own on a two-yard touchdown pass from Mehki Hagens to Jaxson Isacc at the 4:34 mark of the opening stanza.
Reed Harradine’s 48-yard field at the 10:29 mark of the second quarter sent the G-Men into the locker room with a 10-7 lead.
The Tigers’ pushed that lead to 17-7 with 8:41 left in the third quarter as Ruston High School product Ke’Travion “Bull” Hargrove reached paydirt on a 15-yard scoring scamper, but the Golden Lions tightened things up with 3:39 remaining in that stanza as Hagens scored on a one-yard run to shrink the GSU advantage to 17-14.
But Harris had another big play in him, this time a 71-yard scoring reception on a pass from Crawley that extended the GSU lead to 24-14 with 2:05 left in the third period.
“He’s come a long way,” Joseph said about Harris. Marquis hasn’t played a whole bunch of football. He only played two years in high school and was a quarterback. He’s come a long way. He’s a big play guy.
“I think he’ll continue to get even better, but we like where Marquis is at right now.”
Crawley admitted his connection with Harris, a 6-5, 249-pound redshirt freshman, is getting stronger.
“He’s grown a lot, especially since last year,” Crawley said about Harris. “He’s starting to understand the game a lot more. He came up big for us. This season he’s been coming up pretty big for us, so I’m proud of him.”
But after Harris’ TD catch, the Golden Lions again battled back with a 12-yard scoring strike from Hagens to Christian Gammage cutting the GSU lead to 24-21 with 14:05 remaining in the contest.
UAPB had one last chance to earn what could have been its first lead of the game with 3:18, but had to start that possession 99 yards away from the end zone.
After GSU forced a turnover on downs for the Golden Lions with 1:46 left on the clock, GSU scored on the next play as graduate transfer running back Dedrick Talbert scored on a nine-yard run.
GSU capped the win off with a interception by sophomore David Jones with 32 seconds remaining before kneeling on the ball to run out the clock.l
Hargrove led the Tigers with 75 rushing yards on 10 attempts while Talbert added 33 yards on eight carries and Bradford chipped in with 21 yards on three totes.
Joseph said it wasn’t circumstance that all three of GSU’s top running backs hit paydirt.
“We ran the ball in the second half and that helped keep the defense off the field,” Joseph said. “We’ve got to put the ball in those kids’ stomach and let them run the football.”
Crawley connected on 15-of-25 passes for 170 yards while backup Ashton Frye also played some and hit on three-of-five passes for five yards.
Joseph said he wasn’t sure whether or not he would carry using two quarterbacks over to next week’s game.
“I just did what I had to do to win the game,” Joseph said. “I don’t know if I liked it right now. I’ll know tomorrow (after reviewing video) if I liked it or not.”
One thing that remained for GSU was a plethora of flags. The Tigers were penalized nine times for 105 yards, including several personal foul calls called after a G-Man retaliated against a Golden Lion in what was a chippy game from start to finish.
“I don’t know,” Joseph said about the penalty problems that have plagued the G-Men this season. “It’s hard to just, as a player, to walk away sometimes. It just looks like we get caught up. I’ve got to do a better job of getting them (his players) to walk away.
“Y’all watched the game. Y’all see what’s happening.”
Andrew Jones once again led the G-Men with 12 tackles, with half a sack, while David Jones added nine tackles to go along with his interception.
But Andrew Jones also had a personal foul early on during Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s first scoring drive.
“I thought he was in position to make plays,” Joseph said of Andrew Jones. “He’s just got to stop the little extra stuff after plays. He needs to be a pro.
“One of these days these kids are going to have to talk to (pro) GMs, and they’re going to have to explain this stuff. I’m telling them that. They have to take it from there. He’s got to do a better job with that.”
Next up for Grambling will be a SWAC West road game at Texas Southern (2-4, 1-2) at 6 p.m. next Saturday.
