Jacksonville State wasn’t able to pull off a third straight second-half comeback on Tuesday night, with three key offensive injuries playing a part in a 31-13 loss to Liberty at Burgess-Snow Stadium.

Quarterbacks Zion Webb and Logan Smothers and top running back Malik Jackson all left the game at various points for health reasons for the Gamecocks, who saw their three-game winning streak snapped and dropped out of a share of first place in Conference USA. Jax State (5-2, 3-1 CUSA) had rallied for victories the previous two weeks against Sam Houston and Middle Tennessee.

Quentin Cooley ran for 163 yards and two touchdowns for Liberty, which stayed unbeaten at 6-0, 4-0 in CUSA. Kaidon Salter added two touchdown passes for the Flames, who with Air Force and James Madison are among three remaining undefeated teams in the Group of 5 ranks.

“We’re obviously disappointed,” Jax State coach Rich Rodriguez said. “I thought it was an elite opportunity for us and a great atmosphere. We didn’t play well. They controlled the clock. We didn’t play physical enough, we didn’t tackle well enough, we didn’t block well enough, we didn’t coach well enough.”

The loss was Jax State’s first in conference play and just its second at home in two years under Rodriguez. The Gamecocks went 9-2 in 2022 as a member of the ASUN before moving up to the FBS level this season.

Liberty held the ball for 37:43 of clock time, and ran for 245 yards in the game. Jax State came in allowing just 112.7 yards per game on the ground.

Jackson — the leading rusher in Conference USA coming into the night — ran for just 19 yards on six carries before he was injured midway through the second quarter after picking up a first down on third-and-1. He did not return until the fourth quarter, with Anwar Lewis rushing for 81 yards on 15 carries as his replacement.

Webb went down on Jax State’s second series of the game, not to return after suffering a concussion carrying the ball for a short gain. He was replaced by Smothers, who played the bulk of the game until he left in favor of redshirt freshman Ashton Frye late in the third quarter with the Gamecocks down 17-10.

Frye played the final quarter-plus at quarterback for Jax State, completing 5 of 11 passes for 51 yards and running for 23 yards on seven carries. Smothers — whom Rodriguez said was “banged up,” without elaborating — completed 8 of 18 passes for 115 yards with an interception and ran for 13 yards on eight attempts.

Jacksonville State has played four quarterbacks in seven games this season, with Webb and Smothers seeing most of the first-team reps and freshman Te’Sean Smoot also getting into two games. Frye had not seen any action before Tuesday, but Rodriguez said the Gamecocks’ unusual schedule — their last four games have been on Saturday, Thursday, Wednesday and Tuesday due to CUSA’s TV deal with ESPN — has played a role in the quarterback attrition.

“I thought Ashton, for a young guy seeing his first playing time, he did OK,” Rodriguez said. “That limits a little bit what you could do, but hell, we never had the ball in the second half. It was kind of hard to tell.

“… You play four games in 17 days, these things happen. It’s just bad luck. We’ll see (where the quarterbacks) are at in the next day or two, see if they’re ready for the next game.”

Smothers ran for a 1-yard touchdown to put Jax State up 7-0 midway through the first quarter, but the Gamecocks managed just two Alen Karajic field goals after that. Smothers was intercepted at the 2-yard line late in the second quarter, keeping it a 10-10 game at the half.

Salter’s 27-yard touchdown pass to Treon Sibley with 5:55 left in the third put Liberty on top to stay. Salter completed 12 of 21 passes for 177 yards without an interception and also ran for 31 yards.

Frye led JSU to three points on his first series, but nothing further. Liberty took a two-score lead on the first play of the fourth quarter, with Salter hitting Aaron Bedgood from 29 yards away to make it 24-13.

Jax State went three-and-out and punted on its next series, and Liberty then ran nearly 10 minutes off the clock with a 15-play drive that included three third-down conversions and one fourth-down conversion. Cooley’s 5-yard touchdown run with 4:22 left put the game away.

“Second half, I feel like they came out and they wanted it a little bit more than us all across the board, the whole defense,” Jax State linebacker Quae Drake said. “I think size-wise we matched up well, it’s just I think they wanted it a little bit more and they prepared better than us.”

Jax State is home again next Tuesday, hosting Western Kentucky at 6:30 p.m. That game will be televised by ESPNU.