Complete Boxscore

SHREVEPORT, La. -- A young Grambling State offense grew up on the field Saturday as the Tigers overcame early jitters to take a 21-14 season opening win in the Port City Classic played at Independence Stadium.

 

Freshman quarterback D.J. Williams connected on a pair of touchdowns and threw for 161 yards with no interceptions to lead his father's team to victory on a rainy field. Wind and rain from squall lines coming from Tropical Storm Lee in the Gulf of Mexico made throwing conditions tough, but D.J. Williams stayed cool facing a fierce Alcorn State pass rush.

 

"I thought we made plays when we needed to, but more importantly, didn't make the kinds of bad plays that can kill you," GSU coach Doug Williams said. "The weather conditions made it tough, but the whole team did a good job of executing and doing what they needed to do to win."

 

Diminutive senior running back Kenneth Batiste helped take some of the pressure off of D.J. Williams by rushing for 83 yards on 19 attempts, including a five-yard scoring scamper at the 9:08 mark of the second quarter to put GSU on top 21-14. Freshman running back Juwan Martin chipped in with 34 yards on 12 carries for the Tigers.

 

The game was probably closer than the seven-point final spread. Alcorn outgained GSU in total offense with 266 yards compared to 256 yards for the Tigers. GSU outrushed the Braves with 95 yards rushing, four more than Alcorn State. Both teams fumbled twice, turning it over once each.

Alcorn State sophomore quarterback Brandon Bridge connected on 12-of-17 passes for 175 yards while D.J. Williams completed 16 of 21 attempts for 161 yards.

 

Defensively, the Tigers were spearheaded by senior linebacker Cliff Exama, who led all players with 10 tackles while Trey Williams added six takedowns, including a sack and also recorded a pair of quarterback hurries.

 

"They're going to be the strength of this team, especially early on because a lot of our offense is so young, and the defense did a good job out there tonight," Doug Williams said. "Air Canada (Bridge) is a big weapon, and they did a good job of containing him."

 

Bridge topped the Braves with 45 rushing yards on 11 carries.

 

Alcorn State struck first in the contest as Bridge hit receiver Terrance Lewis on a 53-yard scoring strike to put the Braves up 7-0 at the 4:46 mark of the opening stanza. But D.J. Williams answered with a nine play, 66 yard drive culminating with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Bakari Maxwell to tie things up with 35 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

 

It took more than a quarter for that tie to be broken as D.J. Williams hit Mario Louis for a seven-yard touchdown with five seconds remaining in the half to put GSU up 14-7 at intermission.

D.J. Williams' passes of 23 yards to Van Phillips and 21 yards to Maxwell helped set up Batiste's scoring scamper at the 9:18 mark of the third quarter.

 

Bridge and the Braves refused to back down as the Alcorn State quarterback directed his team on a six play, 56 yard drive culminating with a six-yard dash to paydirt by Bridge to cut Grambling's lead to 21-14 with 12:59 remaining.

 

Alcorn State had a late chance to try and tie things up, marching as deep as the GSU 30 yard line with around 3:00 remaining. But on a fourth-and-one situation, Alcorn State running back Reuben Duckworth was stuffed by Exama and Joshua Gentry for a three-yard loss.

 

A 12-yard completion from D.J. Williams to Louis gave the Tigers a time-consuming first down on the ensuing drive and allowed GSU to punt the ball and give Alcorn State only 4.6 seconds to try and drive his team 80 yards for a game-tying touchdown. Bridge escaped for a 30-yard run on the final play of the game before Naquan Smith's tackle gave GSU coach Doug Williams his first win since returning to the Tigers' sideline and a win over his first cousin, Alcorn State head coach Melvin Spears, who took over as head coach after Williams departed for the NFL in 2003.

 

"It was fun playing a game against an opponent that had so much Grambling flavor on their coaching staff," Doug Williams said. "And it was a great football game. The perfect way to start the season. Now we get back to work getting ready for Louisiana-Monroe before returning to conference play at Alabama State in two weeks."