From bamastatesports :
MONTGOMERY, Ala. | The seventh-ranked Kennesaw State Owls took advantage of a pair of Alabama State turnovers, running past the Hornets 42-7 Saturday night at ASU Stadium.
Kennesaw State (2-1), who came into the game with 11th best offense in the country, hit their average with 520 yards of total offense (70 plays) while holding Alabama State to just 54 total plays. The Owls used 480 yards of rushing to get to their total, despite a 100-yard rusher.
The Owls took advantage of an early miscue by Alabama State, blocking a punt to get their first possession set up at the Alabama State 24-yard line. They used four plays (1:51) to take a 7-0 lead, before a pick-six made it 14-0 with 11:55 remaining in the opening quarter.
Kennesaw State took a 28-0 lead at halftime and scored on their opening possession of the third quarter, before Alabama State got on the board with a 13-yard touchdown catch by Michael Jefferson with 12:00 left in the third.
Defensively, Christian Clark led the Hornets with 11 tackles from his defensive line position – including five solo. Darron Johnson added six tackles, while Andrew Ogletree had a pair of tackles for loss and a forced fumble. Joseph Jones came in late for the Hornets to record three tackles, including a sack and a pair of tackles for loss.
Jefferson led Alabama State (1-2) with four catches for 82 yards, while Moses Marshall added three catches for 17 yards; while KHA’Darris Davis finished 12-26 for 157 yards.
Up Next
The Hornets return to action next weekend at home, hosting Grambling State in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) opener. Kick is set for 5 pm, and the game will be carried on the Hornet Sports Network.
Post-Game Notes
Alabama State dropped their consecutive game in the series to Kennesaw State with the loss Saturday night, including a pair of games at home. The deficit Saturday was the largest suffered at home by the Hornets in the series.
The Hornets gave up a season-high 520 yards of total offense, including 480 on the ground.
Michael Jefferson caught a touchdown pass in his third straight home game, a 13-yard reception in the third quarter. He caught a pair of touchdown passes against Mississippi Valley State in the final game of 2018 and three against Tuskegee last week.
Christian Clark recorded 11 tackles in the game for the Hornets who finished the night with one sack, five tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and an interception.
Quotable from head coach Donald Hill-Eley
“This is a tough loss tonight, we just made too many mistakes against a very good team. Up front on both sides, we knew it was going to be physical with the way they run the triple option. Offensively, I felt that if we could block them that we could get the ball down the field, but they were in our backfield all night. We have to find ways to get that fixed before we start conference play. I just thought there were too many mistakes in the kicking game, in the passing game and when you are going against a team that caliber you can’t make those kinds of mistakes. They capitalized on our mistakes and put us in a situation where we were 14 points down before we could get seven plays in the game. We have some things we have to fix and be ready for next week.” – opening statement
“We put them in a comfort zone, and they were able to wear us down. Anytime you fall 14 points behind when you are playing anybody, it’s just tough all the way around. I thought as we challenged the guys to come out and play the second half, and that half was a 14-7 half. We will take that and build off of it and get ready for Grambling.” – early turnovers
“It still comes down to man-on-man, schematic-wise we changed some things to try and help them pick it up. We just had a couple guys that had some bad games tonight, and you can’t have multiple guys have bad days at the same time because it hurts you.” – adjusting to their rushing attack
“Our guys are going to play hard; the thing is getting them to play in all three phases. You are not going to see any quit in them, they love each other and play hard for each other. Our goal is to win the conference tonight doesn’t damage that, we have to get back and learn some tough lessons in what we are doing in these phases. We have to be ready for no matter who we play, and get our guys motivated to play.” – on the program moving forward
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