By T. SCOTT BOATRIGHT, Lincoln Parish Journal
GRAMBLING — It wasn’t always pretty, but a win is a beautiful thing.
That was the sentiment expressed by Mickey Joseph, who saw his Grambling State Tigers run past Central State 48-26 Saturday inside Eddie G. Robinson Memorial Stadium to climb to 2-0.
Grambling’s 644 yards of total offense, 361 on the ground, was a thing of beauty for Joseph, as were three scoring scampers of 40 or more yards.
But two interceptions picked off by Central and the 386 yards of offense put up by the Marauders, with the bulk coming in the second half, was anything but pretty for Joseph.
“We’ve got some things we have to clean up. I wasn’t too happy with the three turnovers on offense or with the way they ran the ball toward the end of the game against our defense. We gave up a big kickoff return also,” he said. “But this was a win. We’re 2-0. We’ll fix the mistakes we made this week and we’ll get ready for TCU.”
Grambling State started strong, scoring a little more than two minutes into the game as Jamarion Parker, a transfer running back from Nebraska raced 45 yards for a score.
The Tigers added a pair of Diego Alfaro field goals before the stanza ended, the first from 19 yards out and the other from 24, to give Grambling a 13-0 advantage heading into the second quarter.
D’Shawn Ford’s two-yard plunge to paydirt with 7:28 remaining in the first half stretched Grambling’s lead to 20-0 before Kenyon Garder finally put Central State on the scoreboard with a 24-yard field goal with 4:48 remaining in the second quarter.
But 15 seconds later Grambling’ running back Tony Phillips crossed the goal line on a 75-yard yard scoring scamper that put the Tigers on top 27-3.
Central State cut into that lead before halftime, as quarterback Jackson Wasik hit Damon Jackson Jr. on a 12-yard scoring strike.
Reginald Johnson got the majority of work at quarterback for the G-Men, completing 18-of-23 passes for 250 yards, including a 50-yard pass to Tyson George, who led Grambling with five receptions for 93 yards while Bride hauled in three passes for 50 yards.
Joseph seemed satisfied with the performance of his four quarterbacks who split time.
“I thought they played for the most part OK,” Joseph said. “I thought that position was a really strong position. I like the chemistry in that room. They really get along and they cheer for each other. And they don’t have long faces. They know they’re in a battle. I think that when you’re in a battle like that, you’ve got to keep them in a battle. They know that they get judged just like any other player. And if they’re not playing well, we’re going to pull them quick.”
Grambling’s seven running backs, led by Phillips’ 73 yards, helped the Tigers total 361 yards on the ground against the Marauders, who fell to 0-2 with the loss.
“We expect that out of Tony,” Joseph said. “This was the first week Jamarion came back (from injury), and we knew what Jamarion Parker is capable of. I recruited him when he was a sophomore in high school and I was at Nebraska. So I knew exactly what he was capable of doing.
“You know, running the ball for more than 350 yards is awesome. So, we’ve got to continue to build on this and just get better in the passing game.”
After two wins over non-Division I opponents, Grambling steps way up in competition when it goes to Fort Worth to play the Big 12 Horned Frogs Saturday night.
Contact Scott at tscottboatright@gmail.com