RJ Johnson III, Jamal Hailey lead Florida A&M to 43-35 victory over Southern

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — RJ Johnson III threw and ran for a touchdown, Jamal Hailey ran for 157 yards and three scores and Florida A&M outlasted Southern 43-35 on Saturday night.

Hailey had a 39-yard touchdown run and Johnson connected with Goldie Lawrence for a 74-yard touchdown in a span of 2:25 in the fourth quarter and Florida A&M (3-4, 2-1 Southwestern Athletic Conference) led 36-28 with 6:43 remaining.

Hailey scored on a first-down 56-yard run following a Jaguars’ punt to up Florida A&M’s advantage to 15 before Strother added his third 1-yard touchdown run for the final margin.

Johnson completed 22 of 32 passes for 287 yards. Hailey did his damage on 19 rushes and Lawrence finished with 95 yards on four receptions.

Trey Holly had a 2-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter before scoring on a 3-yard run 27 seconds into the second to give Southern (1-7, 0-4) a 14-3 lead.

Daniel Porto kicked his second field goal, Hailey followed with a 7-yard touchdown run and Johnson raced 26 yards for a score with 57 seconds left as the Rattlers moved in front 19-14 at halftime.

Ashton Strother finished off a 91-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run and Southern moved back in front 21-19.

Porto’s 20-yard field goal with 2 minutes left gave the Rattlers a 22-21 lead heading to the fourth quarter.

Strother had 197 yards on 12-for-28 passing with three 1-yard touchdown runs. Holly finished with 145 yards on 26 carries for the Jaguars in their sixth straight loss.

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