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JACKSONVILLE – Jacksonville State scored early and often against Austin Peay to run its record to 7-1 for the first time in a decade.

The No. 5 Gamecocks scored touchdowns on their first four possessions and rolled up 651 total yards in a 56-0 Homecoming rout of the Governors on Saturday. The win was Jacksonville State's seventh in a row and helped it maintain sole possession of first place in the Ohio Valley Conference at 5-0.

Jacksonville State travels to Eastern Kentucky (8-1, 5-1) next Saturday for a showdown between the top two teams in the OVC standings.

Austin Peay fell to 1-8 and 1-4.

Miles Jones ran for a career-high three touchdowns and four other Gamecocks added a rushing touchdown against the Governors. Seven of Jacksonville State's eight scoring drives covered at least 62 yards.

The seven rushing touchdowns were one shy of the school record. JSU pounded out 416 yards on the ground, led by DaMarcus James with a game-high 99 yards on 17 carries.

"We played fast and physical the whole game," said Jacksonville State coach John Grass. "We really played well. As a football team we wanted to take steps forward. We talked about it all week.

"We did not want to take a step back – we wanted to get better and I felt like we did that today. I think it shows the maturity of our players and I'm proud of that and proud of the way they approached the game and handled their business."

The 56-0 win was the first shutout record by the Gamecocks' defense since 2010.

Jacksonville State ran nearly twice as many plays as the Govs (49 to 25) in the first half and outgained them 340-25.

Austin Peay's lone first-half highlight came on the opening kickoff when Carlton Montez recovered a Gamecocks fumble on the JSU 30.

But the Govs turned the ball over on downs and Jacksonville State struck quickly for its first score, driving 65 yards in seven plays. Troymaine Pope ran 9 yards for a touchdown and the first of Connor Rouleau's eight extra points gave the Gamecocks a 7-0 lead with 11:37 left in the first quarter.

The Gamecocks struck fast again for their next touchdown.

On second-and-10 from the 15, Eli Jenkins connected with Markis Merrill to the 1, but APSU's Adam Noble knocked the ball loose as Merrill dove for the end zone. Tight end Bo Brummel pounced on the loose football to give the Gamecocks a 14-0 lead at the 7:16 mark.

Jones scored the first of his three touchdowns on a 4-yard run with 5:33 left in the first to cap off a five-play, 31-yard drive set up by a Govs fumble. Jenkins scrambled in from the 1 on JSU's next possession to give his team a 28-0 lead with 1:15 to go in the first quarter.

Backup quarterback Christian LeMay scored on a 7-yard run – his first rushing TD as a Gamecock – with 3:36 left in the second quarter as Jacksonville State extended its lead to 35-0.

Jones had touchdown runs of 21 and 22 yards during the third quarter as the Gamecocks pushed their lead to 49-0.

James polished off the scoring with a 2-yard TD with 12:01 left in the game. It was his 44th career rushing touchdown, moving him to within four of David Gulledge's school record.

POST-GAME NOTES
• JSU Captains: Max Holcombe (OL), Ben Endress (LB), Allan Carson (DL), Terrence Pendleton (DL)
 
• Austin Peay won the toss and elected to defer to the second half. It was the first coin toss of the season the Gamecocks have lost.
 
• Jax State improved to 7-1 for the first time since 2004.
 
• The Gamecocks are 5-0 in the OVC for just the second time in school history and the first time since opening 5-0 in 2010. JSU has never been 6-0 in OVC play.

• JSU's 56-0 shut-out was the Gamecocks' first shut-out since Oct. 16, 2010, when the Gamecocks claimed a 24-0 shutout over Tennessee State.
 
• With the start this afternoon, senior Max Holcombe tied Haneef Haqq for the Jacksonville State school record for most consecutive starts at 45 straight games.
 
• Jacksonville State set a school record with 655 total offensive yards. The previous mark (652) was set against Murray State on Sept. 28, 2013.
 
• Running back Miles Jones set a career high with three rushing touchdowns in the game and now has nine career rushing touchdowns.
 
• The Gamecocks were once again tough on third down defense on Saturday and did not allow a third conversion until 8:19 remained in the third quarter. As a matter of fact, Austin Peay was just 3-of-15 in the game on third down.
 
• DaMarcus James became just the fourth player to rush for 3,000 career yards for the Gamecocks today after finishing with 99 yards on 17 carries. James is just one yard behind former All-American Clay Green for third on the JSU career rushing list. James now has 44 career rushing touchdowns and is just four away from tying David Gulledge's school-record total of 48.

• Josh Barge finished with 110 yards on seven catches and it was his second 100-yard receiving game of the season and the seventh of his career.
 
• The 56 point margin of victory by the Gamecocks is the largest since Aug. 30, 2001 against Cumblerland University, when the Gamecocks won by 61.
 
• With the victory, Jacksonville State improves to 56-11-2 on Homecoming since 1946. Since moving to the Division 1 level in 1995, the Gamecocks are now 12-7 on homecoming.  It is the first Homecoming shutout since 1998 (vs. Samford, 21-0).
 
• The Gamecocks improved their record at Burgess-Snow Field to 30-6 in their last 36 games, as well as 28-5 in last 32 regular season games at home.
 
• JSU is 99-40-8 all-time versus teams from the OVC; 69-23 since joining league in 2003 and have posted a 55-23 overall mark since the 2008 season.
 
• Jax State is 67-10 when scoring 30 or more points and has accumulated over 300 yards of offense in 80-of-92 conference games.
 
• The Gamecocks are 15-6-3 all-time versus Austin Peay and has now won all eight meetings since the Governors rejoined the OVC for football in 2007.

• JSU had four scoring drives of less than 1:55 today and the Gamecocks now have 23 scoring drives of less than 2:01 and 32 drives of 3-minutes or less.

• The 56-point margin of victory was JSU's biggest since beating Cumberland University 72-10 in 2001.
 
JSU BY THE NUMBERS
1:  Quarterback Christian LeMay's rushing touchdown was his first as a member of the Gamecocks.
4: With a forced fumble in the first quarter, the Gamecocks have now forced a fumble in four straight games.
5: The current seven-game win streak by Jacksonville State is now the fifth longest active streak in at the FCS level.
50: The victory gives Jacksonville State its 50th home victory in OVC games.
416: Jacksonville State set a new season high with 416 rushing yards. It ranks sixth in school history.
10,699: Under John Grass in over a year and a half, the JSU offense has racked up 10,699 total offensive yards.



POST-GAME QUOTES
Coach John Grass
Opening Comments
"I'm proud of the way our guys played. We came out and played well in all three phases to start the game, and made strives as a football team and got better. That's one of the things we talked about leading up to the game. It was a little cool today, but I think everyone who came out had a good time. I was proud of the way our guys represented the University today and how they played. Austin Peay is just a young football team, and I think they're going to get better over time. They're a big team upfront, so I was proud of the way our guys played up front to control the line of scrimmage."
 
On Posting Shutout
"I think it was our first shutout since 2010, and it's really impressive. In today's world of offenses, it's really hard to shut somebody out. We've been in situations to get a shutout, but you want to get a lot of folks in the game. I was a little worried about that towards the end. You want to preserve the shutout, but we played everyone on the bench that wasn't red-shirted. I think that's where injuries have hurt us a little bit; we don't have enough guys to put in at the end of the game. You don't want to blow a guy's red-shirt for a few snaps in a blowout game."
 
On setting school record in total offense
"It felt good, but we wish we could have broken it by a few more yards. We probably had some yards left on the field during the second quarter, but it was good. You don't look at how close you are to a record, you just play the game. There at the end, we pretty much had backup guys in trying to get them some playing time. We played our fourth quarterback there at the end when we broke the record, while playing everyone we had on the bench, so everyone got into the game. It was good to get a record, and it's always good to get 600-and-something yards of offense."

 
Quarterback Eli Jenkins
On quick start with 28 first quarter points
"The passing game was working, the running game was working, we controlled the line of scrimmage so we just ran our offense the way coaches expect."
 
On keeping up the pace in the final games
"We're not going to change anything. We are focused on us; we make sure we understand what this season could be. We don't worry about the other guys or who we play, we focus on JSU."
LB, Ben Endress
 
On the strong defensive performance against APSU
"The main factor to how we're working right now is just the way we're gelling right now as a defense. You can tell how much we've improved from the first game to now. We have a good game plan."
 
On maintaining a strong defense in final games
"Those are the fun games to play coming up against good teams. It's like coach tells us, we have a chance to do great things.
 
CB, Jaylen Hill
On how the defense is having success
"Everyone is buying in to what we're trying to do and it starts with our preparation. The biggest thing is our communication; we understand what we need to do each time. We just have to stay focused."