South Alabama Holds Off a Last-second Ohio Rally, 41-36
Ohio scored twice in the final 5:20, including a touchdown as time expired, and still lost by five. South Alabama beat the Bobcats 41-36 and moved to 2-1, while Ohio fell to 1-2.
The Jaguars did their damage early. Keenan Phillips ran for a score on the opening drive, Rod Gibbs caught a 34-yard touchdown pass from Jared Hollins, and Trae'von Dunbar broke a 32-yard run to make it 21-7 early in the second quarter. A Davis Little field goal just before halftime made it 24-7. South Alabama never trailed and the game was tied only once, at 7-7 after Riley Neer's first touchdown catch.
Ohio got back into it with a 33-yard Victor Rosa run and a 9-yard Neer touchdown from Matt Vezza in the third quarter, cutting it to 24-21. PJ Martin's 1-yard run answered, and Dunbar's 5-yard score with 8:21 left made it 38-21. Levi Davis then threw a 10-yard touchdown to AJ Miller and hit Miller again for the two-point conversion to make it 38-29. Little's 21-yard field goal with 1:10 left pushed the lead to 41-29, and Davis found Dom Dorwart from 21 yards on the last play.
South Alabama ran 50 times for 266 yards and finished with 458 total yards against Ohio's 387. Ohio gave it away twice (one interception, one lost fumble) and the Jaguars gave it away zero times, with three sacks to boot. That is how you survive a 15-point fourth quarter by the other side.
Fantasy takeaway: Neer's two touchdowns made him the top scorer of the game, and Phillips led the ground game.