Jax State rushes for 522 yards, pummels La. Tech 56-17

Jax State rushes for 522 yards, pummels La. Tech 56-17

Jacksonville State piled up 522 rushing yards in a 56-17 thrashing of Louisiana Tech on Saturday at Burgess-Snow Field in Jacksonville.

The Gamecocks (8-3 overall, 6-1 Conference USA) scored touchdowns on five of seven first-half possessions and also mixed in a special teams touchdown to build a 42-10 lead at halftime in their final home game of the season. In the first half alone, Malik Jackson scored on runs of 2 and 13 yards, Zion Webb on runs of 34 and 8 yards, Ron Wiggins on a 13-yard run and Kekoura Tarnue blocked a Louisiana Tech punt and returned it 21 yards for a touchdown.

Webb added a 29-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter to put Jax State up 49-17. Anwar Lewis added 9-yard run for the final points of the day for the Gamecocks, who totaled 628 yards offensively.

Jackson (193), Webb (122) and Wiggins (122) all ran for 100-plus yards for Jax State. Webb also threw for 106 yards, most of it on a 58-yard strike to tight end Sean Brown.

Louisiana Tech (3-9, 2-6) managed just 269 yards, and scored only 10 points on offense. The Bulldogs scored on a 31-yard pass from Hank Bachmeier to Cyrus Allen in the first quarter, Buck Buchanan’s 33-yard field goal in the second quarter and Michael Richard’s 6-yard return of a blocked punt in the third.

Jacksonville State finishes the regular season at New Mexico State next Saturday, with kickoff set for 3 p.m. The Gamecocks are not eligible to play in the CUSA championship game as an FBS transitional team, but could still earn a bowl berth if — as expected — there are not enough 6-win teams to fill all the postseason slots.

This post will be updated.