ALABAMA STATE 34, MVSU 6: QB Dominguez, ASU's offense shine

Alabama State put its confidence in Devin Dominguez by naming the junior as the starting quarterback earlier this week. Dominguez validated that decision Saturday night, passing for 261 yards and three touchdowns to lead ASU to a 34-6 win over Mississippi Valley State.

"I'm not going to lie, I felt a little jittery when I was thinking about it before the game," Dominguez said. "But once you get on the field, it's football. The game takes over and you just have fun."

ASU coach Reggie Barlow gave his new quarterback high marks on his first start. As with any first start, there is room for improvement, but the Hornets liked what they saw. "Devin has a lot of talent," Barlow said. "He's calm and he made some good decisions and some good throws. He's got a couple of things to clear up with tempo and the clock, but all in all, he did well."

PHOTO GALLERIES ASU plays Miss Valley

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Arkansas State 61, Mississippi Valley 0

MVSU Delta Devils head coach Willie Totten

Red Wolves Roll Past Mississippi Valley State in Season Opener

Senior tailback Reggie Arnold rushed for 126 yards and four touchdowns and senior quarterback Corey Leonard became the Arkansas State all-time yardage leader as the Red Wolves rolled to 61-0 victory over the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils in the season opener Saturday night at ASU Stadium. Leonard passed for 129 yards and a touchdown and rushed for seven more to finish the night with 7,433 career yards, surpassing Cleo Lemon's mark of 7,309 set from 1997-2000.

Arkansas State piled up 496 yards on the night while holding the Delta Devils to 69 yards of total offense. The shutout was the Red Wolves' first since a 3-0 overtime victory over Florida Atlantic during the 2005 season. "We did what we needed to do, we came out and got a victory," said ASU head coach Steve Roberts. "I was very proud of the preparation of our young men, coming out and taking care of business. We got to play a lot of people tonight and got sloppy towards the end on special teams, but I thought our offense and defense continued to play well. We got a lot of guys on scout team who never get an opportunity to play, and we rewarded them by letting them play in the 3rd and 4th quarters."

Next up for Arkansas St.: Nebraska

Arkansas State won't have long to savor its 61-0 victory over Mississippi Valley State. Next up for the Red Wolves is a trip Saturday to Nebraska, which opened its season with a 49-3 victory over Florida Atlantic. Like ASU, Florida Atlantic is a member of the Sun Belt Conference. Against Mississippi Valley, Reggie Arnold scored four touchdowns for the Red Wolves and rushed for 126 yards on 12 carries. Corey Leonard completed 8 of 13 passes for 129 yards and a touchdown, and he rushed for another 10 yards. Leonard became ASU's leader in career total offense, with 7,433 yards. ASU's defense held the Delta Devils to 69 total yards.

Delta Devils Armon Williams goes in for the tackle.

Valley braced for brutal first game

Mississippi Valley State's first game will be its toughest. Trying to rebound from back-to-back 3-9 seasons, the Delta Devils kick off the 2009 season Saturday at Arkansas State - a Football Bowl Subdivision team (formerly known as Division I-A) that returns 17 starters from last year's team that went 6-6 and defeated Texas A&M."No doubt this will be a challenge for us," Valley coach Willie Totten said. "They play a lot of tough competition in Division I-A in the Sun Belt conference."The good news is that we will know exactly where we are with this team, and with an open date coming up, we will have two weeks to get it right before we open conference play.

"The Red Wolves are 4-0 against Southwestern Athletic Conference teams, with the last two wins coming in major blowouts (55-3 over MVSU in 1995 and 83-10 over Texas Southern in 2008). This is obviously not the way Totten would have preferred to open the season, but this game gives Valley's strapped athletic budget a boost because Arkansas State will pay MVSU $200,000 to play Saturday. Totten says the program should net at least $185,000 once all the travel expenses are paid.

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SWAC, MVSU mourn ex-A.D. Prophet’s death

ITTA BENA, Miss. — Charles “Chuck” Prophet, former athletic director and sports information director for Mississippi Valley State University, died on Friday. He was 67. Prophet, who was widely known as “The Wagon Master” of the famed Southwestern Athletic Conference football press tours, died about midday Friday at Greenwood Leflore Hospital in Greenwood, university officials said.

“Words cannot express how dearly Chuck will be missed,” said interim director of athletics Donald Sims. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to Anna and the rest of the family. Chuck will always remain in our hearts.” “His hard work and his dedication at MVSU and within the conference were immeasurable,” said SWAC Commissioner Duer Sharp.

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MVSU Green finalist for Jacksonville State coaching vacancy

Photo: Mississippi Valley State University James Green is looking to move up the coaching ladder as a finalist for the Jacksonville State head basketball coaching vacancy.

Jacksonville State University has named four finalists for its vacant men's basketball coaching job.

They are University of Alabama assistant Philip Pearson, Hoover High boys head coach Charles Burkett, Mississippi Valley State University head coach James Green and University of Massachusetts associate head coach Timothy Maloney.

Those four will be invited to come to campus next week for further interviews after they were among about a dozen candidates screened by a committee and recommended to JSU President Bill Meehan.

Coach Green led MSVU to the NCAA Tournament this season after winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament. He was also head coach at Southern Miss from 1996 to 2004 and has been an assistant at Alabama, Iowa State, Texas A&M and Idaho.

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Jackson State ice MVSU Devilettes 76-57

ITTA BENA, Miss. - The Jackson State University women's basketball team controlled the action from the beginning to the end of regulation, as the Lady Tigers defeated the Mississippi Valley State Devilettes 76-57 in SWAC action Saturday night.

The Devilettes jumped out to an early 11-5 lead at the 17:13 mark in the first half. JSU went on a 14-0 run that was jumped started by an Erica Trahan jumper. JSU took a 19-11 lead with 11:51 remaining in the first half. The Lady Tigers went on to extend their lead to 43-27 at the half. The Lady Tigers shot 60 percent from the field in the first half, while Valley shot 40.9 percent.

In the second half, Jackson State extended its lead by as much as 27 points with 6: 49 left in the game.

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Mississippi Valley State climbs into SWAC contention

Photo: MVSU point guard Mike Davis, 5-8/160 senior, Los Angeles, CA, Panola J.C.

The Mississippi Valley State men's basketball program didn't get a whole lot of love from its peers entering the 2007-08 season.

The Delta Devils were fresh off a first-place Southwestern Athletic Conference regular season finish. In fact, they were a poor first half away from beating Jackson State in the SWAC Tournament and playing eventual national champion Florida in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

But MVSU was still predicted to finish fourth in the league's preseason poll. The squad may be currently sitting in that No. 4 slot, but the Delta Devils have won four of their last five.

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