Troy once again finds itself in what has become a familiar position under second-year coach Jon Sumrall — sole possession of first place in the Sun Belt Conference West Division.

The Trojans won their fifth straight game on Saturday night, beating Texas State 31-13 in San Marcos, Texas. Troy (6-2 overall, 3-1 Sun Belt) outscored the Bobcats 24-3 in the second half and 17-0 in the fourth quarter.

“So proud of our guys,” Sumrall said during his postgame interview on the Trojan Radio Network. “They have unbelievable grit and fight. Just really proud of their effort. I couldn’t be more grateful for them.”

Troy now has a short week before welcoming South Alabama (4-4, 2-2) in the “Battle of the Belt” on Thursday night. The Trojans have won six straight over the Jaguars, who fell out of a tie for first place in the West when they lost 33-20 at home to Louisiana on Saturday.

Troy has not lost since a 16-14 defeat to James Madison on Sept. 16, and is now 18-4 under Sumrall. The Trojans are 7-3 during Sumrall’s tenure when trailing at halftime.

“Credit to our coaching staff,” Sumrall said. “In our tenure going back a year-and-a-half, I think at halftime, our coaches really do a nice job of regrouping, recalibrating and figuring out what’s going well, maybe what’s not going so well, and how do we readjust to get things improved. Credit to our kids to take those adjustments on the fly and really put them into actualization and use them.”

Troy quarterback Gunnar Watson passed for three touchdowns and a career-high 392 yards on Saturday. His 29-yard touchdown pass to Jabré Barber early in the third quarter gave Troy the lead for good at 14-13, then his scoring passes of 14 yards to Deshon Stoudemire and 4 yards to Landon Parker in the fourth quarter helped put the game away.

Barber caught 10 passes for 160 yards, his second straight 100-yard day. The Trojans needed the big passing performance because Kimani Vidal — the nation’s leading rusher coming into the game — was held to just 43 yards on 18 carries.

“We started out slow in the first half,” Barber said. “So we made a couple of adjustments and we threw the ball a little bit more, which opened up the game for everybody. We just made it happen.”

The Trojans led 14-13 headed into the fourth quarter vs. Texas State, then went up 21-13 on the touchdown pass to Stoudemire with 13:48 to play. It was then that Troy’s defense took over.

Texas State (5-3, 2-2) faced third-and-2 from their 33, then tried to get the first down with running back Ismail Mahdi out of the wildcat formation on back-to-back plays. Jayden McDonald stopped Mahdi after one yard on third down, then Keyshawn Swanson dropped him for a 2-yard loss on fourth-and-1.

Watson threw 27 yards to Brody Dalton on the next play to put the ball on the 5. Two plays later, he hit Parker for the touchdown and a 28-13 Troy lead with 10:22 remaining.

Texas State got the ball three more times, but could not score. Stringer sacked Bobcats quarterback T.J. Finley and forced a fumble recovered by Eric Shaw on the first possession, then Finley threw incomplete on fourth down on the second.

Troy’s Scott Taylor Renfroe added a 27-yard field goal to complete the scoring with 1:26 remaining. The Trojans won despite being outgained 437 yards to 420, but forced four turnovers — including interceptions by Stringer and Reddy Steward in the first half.

Finley — the 6-foot-7 Auburn transfer — completed 24 of 38 passes for 262 yards, including a 28-yard touchdown pass to Ashtyn Hawkins for a 7-0 lead on the Bobcats’ first possession. Troy answered with Watson’s 3-yard touchdown run with 14:02 left in the second, then Texas State’s Mason Shipley kicked a 21-yard field goal with 1:49 remaining in the half to put the Bobcats up 10-7 at the break.

After Watson’s touchdown pass to Barber gave Troy the lead at 14-10, Shipley booted a 23-yarder at the 8:16 mark of the third to cut the Trojans’ advantage to one. That score stood until the fourth quarter, in which Troy dominated once again.

“It was the bend-but-not-break mentality for our defense,” Sumrall said. “… At the end of the day, the points scored is what matters. They had about 300 yards at halftime, which is about what we give up in most games. So I was little bit sick over that. But to hold this (Texas State) offense to 13 points is a pretty special effort.”

Kickoff for Troy-South Alabama is set for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The game will be televised by ESPN2.