Photo courtesy of Arkansas State Athletics

The Arkansas State football team continued their winning momentum Saturday in Amherst against the Massachusetts (UMass) Minutemen. 

The Red Wolves offense carved up the UMass defense with little difficulty thanks both to a porous Minutemen defense and an efficient A-State offensive attack. 

Freshman quarterback Jaylen Raynor continued to solidify his hold as the permanent starting quarterback, passing 20/25 for 383 yards and tying a program record six touchdowns. Raynor threw no interceptions and averaged over 15 yards per pass.

The offense was balanced with the ground game as well. Junior running back Zak Wallace had 11 carries for 54 yards and sophomore RB Ja’Quez Cross rushed 11 times for 48 yards and a touchdown.

The name of the game for the Red Wolves was the air attack. A whopping five different receivers caught at least one touchdown. Junior wide receiver Adam Jones caught three passes for 105 yards and a touchdown. Senior WR Courtney Jackson caught four passes for 75 yards and a TD. Senior WR Jeff Foreman caught two passes and both of those receptions were touchdowns. Junior WR Reagan Ealy and junior tight end Emmanual Stevenson each caught a touchdown as well.

The A-State defense locked up UMass most of the afternoon. Senior safety Eddie Smith recorded the game’s only turnover with an interception at the end of the first quarter. Freshman linebacker Javante Mackey led the Red Wolves in tackles with eight and recorded two sacks and two tackles for loss.

Sophomore defensive end Keyron Crawford led in sacks, recording two and a half. Senior DE Thurman Geatheres recorded 1.5 sacks. 

Most of the UMass points came from either Minutemen star QB Taisun Phommachanh or RB Greg Desrosiers. Almost all points scored by these two were in the second half, by which point the Red Wolves were too far ahead for a UMass score to matter.

The Red Wolves will look to continue their streak to four in a row as they stay on the road next week at Troy.

Categories: Sports