The Prairie View A&M University football team took home the hardware at the 23rd Annual Labor Day Classic, as they gracefully battled and seized the win against Texas Southern.
The game started off slow for both teams, as neither Prairie View nor Texas Southern could put anything on the scoreboard. The Prairie View offense and defense soon found its rhythm as the game persisted.
The first quarter consisted of three drives from Prairie View that resulted in three punts. Texas Southern’s quarterback, Tino Edgecombe moved the ball efficiently down the field, but a missed field goal, and two punts was the result of the first quarter from Texas Southern.
In the second quarter where the Panthers stepped up and took control of the game. The spark came from an Anthony Beck blocked field goal at the nine-minute mark. Things settled down for both teams, but the fire started for Prairie View at the 1:41 min. mark, as the Panther offense got in sync and had a steady drive that came to an end with a 34 yard field goal by Brady Faggard, closing the first half.
With the start of the third, the Panthers immediately picked up where they left off, with an untouched 51-yard touchdown scamper from quarterback Chris Gibson (Faggard PAT). The next big stop, came from a Zach East, SWAC Defensive Player of the Week, fumble recovery. Next to find the end zone for the Panthers was running back Calvin Harris, who tacked on six more with a six-yard touchdown run (Faggard PAT). An Edward Moore interception would bring the ball back to the Prairie View offense, where kicker Brady Faggard would add on three more points from twenty-three yards out. The fourth quarter would bring about some trouble, for the Prairie View defense.
Texas Southern’s Tino Edgecombe drilled passes down the field, but was intercepted twice. One which was ran back 92 yards for a touchdown by Anthony Beck, and one that was snatched by Max Sercherey.
Texas Southern soon caught Prairie View’s defense sleeping with a 54 yard touchdown pass, making the score 27-7.
The following drive, quarterback Mark Spivey would dive into the end zone from two yards out, which sealed the game for the Panthers.
Texas Southern followed with a 32-yard touchdown pass, but that would not be nearly enough to defeat the Panthers, with the final score of 34-14.
Offensive leaders were Chris Gibson who had 123 yards rushing, 103 yards passing, and Anthony Weeden with four catches.
Defensive standouts were Edward Moore with 14 tackles, Zach East with 13 tackles, and Marquis Johnson with two sacks. Specialist Brady Faggard went 2/2 on field goal attempts, and 4/4 PAT attempts.