NACOGDOCHES, Texas (AP) _ Jerry Lovelocke threw four touchdown passes and ran for three more as Prairie View A&M beat Stephen F. Austin 56-48 Saturday night.
The Lumberjacks scored twice, on 1-yard runs by Gus Johnson and Joshawa West, in the first four minutes of the game to take a 14-0 lead, but then Prairie View’s offense came to life.
Lovelocke, who finished with 380 yards passing, put the Panthers on the scoreboard just over two minutes later when he connected with Gabe Dunlop for a 13-yard touchdown. Lovelocke’s 7-yard scoring run with 7 seconds left in the first quarter gave Prairie View (3-2) a 21-14 lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
“The way we started off, I never would have saw us finishing like that but we showed that we are a resilient ball club,” Prairie View head coach Heishma Northern said. “We didn’t play the smartest football game, but we damn sure played hard.”
Stephen F. Austin (2-3) racked up 827 yards of total offense but turned the ball over five times.
The two teams combined for 1409 total yards.
Brady Attaway set single-game Southland Conference and school records for passing yards (662) and total offense (655) and threw four touchdown passes in the loss.
Aaron Thomas caught 10 passes for a conference-record 242 yards receiving and two touchdowns and was one of three Lumberjacks receivers to top the 100-yard plateau. D.J. Ward had 170 yards and Tyler Boyd added 100 more.
Attaway’s 26-yard scoring strike to Mike Brooks narrowed the gap to 56-48 with 1:43 remaining and the SFA defense forced a three-and-out and Brooks’ 22-yard punt return gave the Lumberjacks the ball at midfield with 1:12 to play.
Attaway moved the offense down to the Prairie View 9-yard line before turning the ball over on downs as time expired.
Johnson racked up 179 yards rushing on just 18 carries.
