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MOBILE, Ala. – When the University of South Alabama football team took over for its final possession against Nicholls on Saturday, the situation was this — less than three minutes left on the clock, trailing by seven points and with just a field goal on the scoreboard after the break.

But Dallas Davis marched the Jaguars 83 yards in 13 plays, hitting Tyrone Williams for a nine-yard touchdown pass with 16 seconds to go in regulation, Xavier Johnson scored his career-high third touchdown in overtime and SirCalvin Wallace stopped a two-point try, giving USA a 41-40 non-conference victory over the Colonels at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

After taking a 27-26 lead following its opening drive of the second half, the Jags (2-2) had recorded 54 yards of offense in four series leading up to the possession to tie the game.  Facing fourth-and-six, David found Gerald Everett down the right sideline for a gain of 33 yards, picking up additional first downs with completions of 13 and 12 yards to Jordan McCray.  With USA again needing to convert to keep the drive alive, this time on third-and-four from the NSU-21, Davis hit Williams for six yards, finding the senior receiver again on the next snap to send the game to overtime.

In the extra period, Johnson accounted for five of the Jaguars' six rushes before crossing the goal line from four yards out one play after he converted a fourth-and-one situation with a two-yard pick up.  Dontrell Taylor began NSU's drive with a 17-yard run, and two plays later he scored on a four-yard carry to the left.  The Colonels (1-2) attempted a two-point conversion for the win; their first try was intercepted by Jeremy Reaves in the end zone, but after USA was flagged for an offside penalty Wallace wrapped up Taylor at the line of scrimmage to snap the Jags' two-game losing streak.

It also gave South its third win in as many meetings with the Colonels.

"One of the things we've tried to emphasize this offseason is character and I think you've seen that in a couple of games this year already," USA head coach Joey Jones said.  "The guys never got on each other during the game.  The chips were kind of down there toward the end of the game and our guys kept fighting and believing.  When you have people on your team like that — both coaches and players who all believe — it's a great thing.

"It was ugly in some ways and we made enough mistakes to get us beat, but Nicholls had a lot to do with that.  They're a good football team, we knew that coming into the game.  They're real scrappy and my hat's off to them, but I'm also real proud of our guys.  The game was definitely on the line when there was a minute and 10 remaining.  You've got to make plays in those situations and if you don't, you lose.  Our guys made plays and won the ball game."

The Jags surrendered just 230 yards in the contest, including only 69 passing.  Darrell Songy paced the unit with a career-best nine stops, including one behind the line of scrimmage, and he also recovered one of two fumbles recorded by the unit.  Kalen Jackson and Nigel Lawrence were credited with seven tackles each, with Jackson forcing one fumble, recovering another and making one stop for loss.  Randy Allen posted a pair of sacks and two forced fumbles among his six total tackles, Reaves chipped in with six stops and a pass defensed, while Devon Earl and Tyree Turner both finished with five tackles.

Trailing 27-26, NSU's third interception of the night gave the Colonels a short field as B.T. Sanders picked off a pass before stepping out of bounds at the USA-32.  It led to a 16-yard touchdown pass from Chase Fourcade to Damion Jeanpiere with eight minutes and 45 seconds remaining in regulation, and when Josh Singleton found C.J. Bates for the two-point conversion Nicholls had a 34-27 advantage.

With the Jaguars up by one at the break, the two teams traded field goals on their opening drives of the second half.  A long return from Stefano Guarisco — covering 52 yards to start the third quarter — led to a 21-yard conversion from David McKey as the Colonels went back in front 26-24 less than three minutes into the period, but five-and-a-half minutes later Gavin Patterson converted from 26 yards out to cap a 13-play drive and put USA back in front by a point.

Johnson finished with his first 100-yard rushing game of the season, posting 103 yards and two scores on 21 carries, on his way to collecting a season-best 256 all-purpose yards.  Ninety-five of those came when he ran back the opening kickoff for a score — the first time in program history a Jag has accomplished the feat — to give USA a 7-0 lead.  It was the second of Johnson's career, as well as his first touchdown of the season.

The lead would remain that way for the Jaguars until Dami Ayoola capped a nine-play, 71-yard drive with a three-yard touchdown run, the first of his career, on the third play of the second quarter.  The score came one play after Davis hit Maaseiah Francis for a 26-yard gain.

Ayoola and Deonta Moore both posted career-high rushing totals with 47 and 58 yards, respectively, helping the Jaguars end the contest with 208 total on the ground.  Davis was 24-of-50 passing for 302 yards, with Williams catching a team-best six passes for 64 yards, Kevin Kutchera hauling in four balls for a career-high 86 yards and Everett finishing with three receptions for 48 yards.

Nicholls returned the ensuing kickoff 77 yards to the USA-20, but on the Colonels' first snap Allen came up the middle to sack Fourcade, forcing a fumble that Jackson recovered to end the threat.  But NSU managed to cut its deficit in half on South's initial play of the drive that followed when Chris Major intercepted a pass at the 33-yard line and ran untouched to the end zone.

The Colonels tied the contest, 14-14, two-and-a-half minutes later as Christian Boutte picked up and returned a 49-yard field goal attempt that was blocked by Jeff Hall 51 yards for a score.  Just over a minute-and-a-half after that NSU took its first lead.  Ahmani Martin's interception gave Nicholls the ball at the USA-26.  After a one-yard run, C.J. Okpalobi carried 24 yards but was stripped by Jackson before he crossed the goal line.  After officials ruled that the Colonels would get the ball at the one-yard line, Mason Boudreaux scored on a run up the middle to extend the advantage to six after the extra-point attempt failed.

NSU then recovered the kickoff that followed at the USA-26, with a 37-yard field goal from McKey making the score 23-14 with just over eight minutes left before the break.  The Jags answered with a three-play, 62-yard march that started with a career-long 39-yard run from Moore and ended when Johnson crossed the goal line from 16 yards out to make it a two-point contest, regaining the lead 24-23 with a little over four minutes to go in the half when Patterson hit a 22-yard field goal.  Allen stripped Okpalobi, with Songy recovering at the Colonel 23-yard line to set up the score.

That would be the score at halftime as the Jaguars outgained Nicholls by a 276-92 margin over the first 30 minutes of action.

Taylor ended up with 125 yards on 25 carries, while Okpalobi ran nine times for 48 more.  Fourcade completed 10-of-19 passes for only 69 yards, with Bates leading NSU's receivers with three catches for 30 yards.

Sanders had a game-high 13 tackles, and he also forced a fumble to go along with his interception.  Hezekiah White was credited with 11 stops, with 2½ of those for loss, Sully Laiche collected eight tackles and Allen Pittman had seven for the Colonel defense.

The previous meeting between the two schools ended with the Jags earning a 9-3 victory.

"What a crazy, wild ballgame.  I'm very proud of the effort, those guys fought," said Nicholls head coach Tim Rebowe.  "We were down early, we came back and took the lead, then went down — it was just back-and-forth, wild college football game.  We made enough plays and enough mistakes to last the whole season.  Those guys kept battling and they believed.  We went and we were going to get off the field on that last drive, we had a fourth down and we could have gotten off the field, but we didn't.  [South Alabama] has a good football team.  I mean we came back and had a chance the ballgame.  We came here to win and that's what we wanted to do."

The Jaguars will play consecutive contests at home for the first time this season when they host No. 22 San Diego State Saturday at 7 p.m. (CDT).  The match-up will be broadcast nationally on ESPNEWS.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

—USA—