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RICHMOND, Ky. – Jacksonville State turned decidedly "old school" Saturday afternoon and left Roy Kidd Stadium in sole possession of first place in the Ohio Valley Conference.

The No. 4 Gamecocks relied on a punishing running game and stern defense to defeat No. 15 Eastern Kentucky 20-6 in a showdown between the OVC's top teams. Jacksonville State won on EKU's field for the first time since 2006 to improve to 8-1 overall, 6-0 in league play.

The Gamecocks can clinch their fourth OVC title with a win over Eastern Illinois (5-5, 5-1) next Saturday. Kickoff at Burgess-Snow Field is at 3 p.m.

DaMarcus James rushed for a career-best 170 yards on 21 carries to lead JSU's ground attack. The Gamecocks ran 56 times for 357 yards with three other players – Eli Jenkins (79 yards), Troymaine Pope (64) and Miles Jones (52) – rushing at least six times.

Meanwhile, Jacksonville State's defense limited the Colonels to only 292 yards, 130 under their season average.

"People asked me all week how I thought the game was going to go, whether it was going to be high-scoring," said Jacksonville State head coach John Grass. "As good as these two defenses are, it could easily have been low-scoring and that's how it turned out. It was just a quality football game."

Eastern Kentucky entered the contest as the OVC's second-best rushing team. The Colonels were held to 100 yards on 35 rushes by the Gamecocks.

"Our defense just played their butts off," Grass said. "Two times they were able to get the ball into the red zone and we were able to hold them to field goals. That was big."

Jacksonville State's defense extended its streak of not allowing a touchdown to 13 quarters by limiting EKU to two field goals Saturday. Tennessee State was the last team to find the end zone against JSU in the third quarter on Oct. 11.

Jacksonville State's aggressive defense limited the Colonels to 113 total yards and just one field goal as the Gamecocks led 10-3 at halftime.

Connor Rouleau gave Jacksonville State a 3-0 lead with a 22-yard field goal at the 10:30 mark in the first quarter.

The Colonels answered with a 30-yard field goal from Andrew Lloyd after a JSU turnover midway through the second quarter. But James finished off a 75-yard drive on the next series with a 13-yard run for a 10-3 lead the Gamecocks never relinquished.

Rouleau booted a career-long 48-yard field with 8:35 remaining to push JSU ahead 13-6.

Pope sealed Jacksonville State's eighth straight win by running in from the 14 with 3:46 left in the game.

His fifth touchdown of the season capped a time-consuming eight-play, 87-yard drive and gave the Gamecocks their biggest lead at 20-6.

James moved into second place on JSU's all-time career rushing list, passing Clay Green (3,034) and Rondy Rogers (3,143). The senior tailback now has 3,203 yards on 597 career rushes.


POSTGAME NOTES
- JSU Captains: Max Holcombe (OL), DaMarcus James (RB), Chris Landrum (DE), Jermaine Hough (CB)
- JSU wins the toss and defers until the second half.
• The Gamecocks are 6-0 in the OVC for the first time in school history.
- Senior OL Max Holcome set the school record by earning his 46th consecutive start. It breaks the previous mark set by Haneef Haqq (2002-2005). He is one shy of the Ohio Valley Conference consecutive starts record, which is 47 and held by DT Tim Kelly of Eastern Illinois (2004-07).
- DaMarcus James finished the game with 170 yards to give him 3,233 in his career and move from fourth into second place on the school's career rushing list. His first carry pushed him ahead of Clay Green's second-place total of 3,034 yards. Rondy Rogers is third on JSU's list with a total of 3,143.
- Josh Barge finished the game with 78 receiving yards (1563) and became just the tenth player in JSU history to record 1,500 career receiving yards, moving past Rusty Fuller (1,500) into ninth place in school history.
- DaMarcus James finished with his 16th career 100-yard rushing game to extend his school record. It marked his third 100-yard rushing game of the season and his 170 yards marks the fifth-highest total in a game in his career.
- Connor Rouleau's 48-yard field goal in the fourth quarter is the longest of his career (previous was 42 at UTC on 9/6/14) and is tied for the 11-longest field goal in school history.
- Junior Folo Johnson's 14 tackles sets a new career high, surpassing his previous high of eight (set twice).
- Senior Ben Endress recorded 10 tackles in the game, his fourth-straight double-digit tackles game and his fifth in the last six games.
- Endress' 10 tackles in the game give him 200 in his career, putting him over the 200-tackle mark.
- Junior Troymaine Pope's 14-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter was his fifth of the season and the 14th of his career.
- The JSU defense did not allow a touchdown against the Colonels to extend their consecutive streak to 13 straight quarters to not allow a touchdown. The last touchdown allowed was during the third quarter at Tennessee State on Oct. 11.
- Jax State won its ninth straight game, which is the sixth longest winning streak in school history.
- The Gamecocks have now posted a 70-23 record against OVC opponents
- JSU is now 3-0 against ranked opponents this season and has won five of its last six vs ranked foes.
- The Gamecocks now have an all-time record of 100-58-3 during the month of November since the 1964 season and is 31-31 in Division I.
- Head coach John Grass improved to 8-1 as head coach and has the most wins of any other head coach in JSU's history through the first nine games.
- Junior Debarriaus Miller had a career-high two interceptions today and he alsi is the first Gamecock to have a pair of interceptions since Jermaine Hough against Tennessee State on Oct. 11.