AMHERST, Mass. (9/30/23) – A potent passing offense paved the way to the Arkansas State football team's third consecutive win in a 52-28 rout at UMass Saturday at McGuirk Alumni Stadium.
A-State (3-2) got off to a roaring start, taking an early 17-0 lead after one quarter against the Minutemen (1-5), and racked up 556 yards of total offense, including 383 through the air by quarterback Jaylen Raynor.
Raynor completed 20 of 25 passes for six touchdowns – tying the single-game school record and becoming just the fourth FBS true freshman since 2013 with six touchdown passes in a game, joining Caleb Williams (Oklahoma vs Texas Tech, 2021), Justin Herbert (Oregon at California, 2016) and Patrick Mahomes (Texas Tech vs Baylor, 2014) as FBS true-freshman quarterbacks since 2013 with six or more touchdown passes in a game.
Nine different receivers caught passes, with five finding the end zone. Adam Jones led the way with a career-high 105 yards on three receptions, while both of Jeff Foreman's catches resulted in scores.
Zac Wallace led A-State's ground game with 11 carries for 54 yards. Ja'Quez Cross also took 11 carries for 48 yards and a score, while Raynor added 35 yards on 10 attempts to run his total offense yardage to 418 yards.
Defensively, Javante Mackey racked up a team-high eight tackles, including seven solo stops. Two of those tackles were sacks – the first two of his career.
The Red Wolves took possession from the opening kickoff and drove 75 yards in just over 3 minutes for their first score, an 11-yard rushing touchdown by Cross. A-State has now scored on its first possession of the game for three consecutive outings while Cross found the end zone for the third straight game.
After Eddie Smith picked off a pass that halted the hosts' first drive and returned it 23 yards to the 13, Raynor found Emmanual Stevenson for a 5-yard strike to make it 14-0 less than six minutes into the contest. Dominic Zvada later added a 44-yard field goal to push the Scarlet and Black's lead to 17-0 after one quarter.
UMass got on the board early in the second quarter when Gregory Desrosiers broke loose for a 60-yard rushing touchdown. Desrosiers ran the ball three times for a game-high 75 yards.
Raynor then found Jeff Foreman (39 yards) and Courtney Jackson (4 yards) in the end zone, running A-State's lead to 31-7 before UMass added a 22-yard field goal by Cameron Carson to cut the margin to 31-10 at the half.
Carson added a 24-yard kick after the half, but the Red Wolves answered with a 33-yard pass from Raynor to Reagan Ealy that pushed the lead back out to 38-13. UMass quarterback Taisun Phommachanh later found Desrosiers for a 5-yard score before Raynor and Foreman linked up again for a 26-yard strike that expanded A-State's advantage to 45-20 entering the fourth.
Early in the fourth quarter, Raynor found Jones for a 55-yard toss to cap A-State's scoring for the night, with the Minutemen adding a 2-yard rushing score by Kay'Ron Adams at the 10:52 mark.
NEXT UP
A-State returns to action Saturday, Oct. 7 at Troy. Kickoff against the Trojans at Veterans Memorial Stadium is set for 3 p.m. CT on ESPN+, while the radio broadcast can be heard on the EAB Red Wolves Sports Network as well as on the A-State Red Wolves mobile app.
