LUT WILLIAMS BCSP Editor
ATLANTA, GA – Many of the 26,763 fans at Saturday’s Celebration Bowl X at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium likely thought the game was all but over when SWAC champion Prairie View A&M dominated the first half and went into the break with a 21-0 lead over MEAC champion South Carolina State.
But, boy were they (we) wrong)!
A Prairie View turnover in its first second-half possession deep in its own territory was just the opening Chennis Berry’s South Carolina State squad needed. The 5-yard scoring run by running back Tyler Smith on the next play constituted the first of 40 second-half points that propelled the Bulldogs (10-3) to a stunning 40-38 victory that they needed four overtimes to pull out.
“You gotta believe,” said an amped-up Berry in his postgame comments after his Bulldogs pulled off the improbable win. “I didn’t chew anybody out at halftime. I just told them, if they didn’t believe, then don’t
leave this locker room.”
South Carolina State stormed out of the locker room and put together the largest comeback in the first multi-overtime game in Celebration Bowl history to earn the 2025 FCS black college national championship.
HOW IT UNFOLDED
The Prairie View turnover, on a botched wide receiver reverse that gave SC State the ball at the Panthers’ 5-yard line, opened the door for the Bulldogs. The play of back-up grad senior quarterback Ryan Stubblefield (15-29-1, 234 yards, 2 TDs, 1 rushing TD) blew the door off.
He entered the game on the last SC State possession of the first half after starter William Atkins IV went out with an injury to his throwing arm after passing for just 45 yards. Stubblefield hit on 2 of 6 passes before the final of five first-half Bulldog punts.
But after his team got on the scoreboard early in the second half, he caught fire. Stubblefield needed just two plays to get his squad to pay dirt again. Starting at his own 48 after a Prairie View punt, he connected with Nigel Johnson on a 42-yard hook up deep down the right sideline to the Prairie View 10. On the next play, wideout Jordan Smith ran it in from there and with 8:34 to play in the third quarter, it was 21-14 and we had a game.
Prairie View, obviously rattled after cruising to the big lead, had another three-and-out, augmented by a delay of game penalty. The Panthers’ punt gave SC State the ball on Prairie View’s side of the field at the 49. Stubblefield hit Johnson for 14 yards before a pass interference penalty gained the Bulldogs 30 yards to the PV 19. On the next play, Stubblefield hit Smith on a short pass in the left flat and he ran untouched to the end zone. With 5:05 left in the period, we had a new game with the teams knotted at 21.
But it was far from over. In fact, this is where the real back-and-forth began. The teams traded touchdowns over the final 20 minutes.
PV got a 13-yard hookup from QB Cameron Peters to Andre Dennis to complete a six-play, 75-yard drive at the 2:38 mark of the third period. Stubblefield then engineered a 12-play, 78-yard drive capped by his 1-yard scoring plunge with 10:44 left in the final period to tie the score at 28.
Two plays after the kickoff, Peters (24-35-0, 412 yards, 4 TDs) hit WR Cameron Bonner on a 78-yard catch and run TD down the right sideline for a 35-28 Panthers’ lead with 9:53 left. In the ensuing 13-play, 62-yard drive that knotted the score at 35 and sent the game to overtime, Stubblefield hit Smith (9 catches, 152 yards, 2 TDs) for 19 yards on 3rdand-10 from the SCSU 38 and later hit Smith on a 23-yard game-saving pass over the middle on 4th-and-16 from the PV 37. The duo capped the drive with a 10-yard scoring pass with 1:54 to play.
Both teams got a final possession before entering the overtime periods.
In the first OT from the 25-yard line, the teams traded field goals. Prairie View’s Diego Alfaro was good first from 29 yards out before SC State’s Nico Cavanillos Alti tied in on a clutch 40-yarder.
In the second OT from the 25, SCSU got the ball first but Stubblefield was picked off at the goal line. Alfaro was then wide right on a potential game-winning 31-yard field goal sending the game to a third extra period that by rule began at the 3-yard line with just one play for each team to score.
Peters’ pass failed in Prairie View’s possession as did Stubblefield onthe Bulldogs’ chance. It then triggering the fourth extra period from the 3.
In the SC State possession, Stubblefield rolled right and hit Tyler Smith who stretched the ball at the right pylon that the official ruled a touchdown. It triggered a lengthy review before the call was upheld. In Prairie View’s turn, Peters was pressured and tried to run forward before
he was tackled and went down in the backfield.
OUTCOMES
• For his second-half heroics, Stubblefield was named the game’s offensive MVP, an award that could have easily gone to his compadre Jordan Smith after his clutch catches and three-touchdown second-half performance.
“At halftime, I didn’t think plays but playmakers,” Berry said postgame. “I said ‘we have to get the ball to our best playmaker (Smith) and that’s what we did.'”
• SC State defensive back Brenyen Scott, who led the Bulldogs with nine stops, seven solos, earned the game’s defensive MVP honors.
• Cameron Peters, Prairie View’s grad senior QB, certainly did his part. His 412 passing yards broke the Celebration Bowl passing yardage record of 364 yards set by North Carolina A&T quarterback Kylil Carter during his six-touchdown performance against Alcorn State in 2019.
• Prairie View outgained S. C. State 319 to 80 yards in the first half and only allowed the Bulldogs past midfield once. At that point it looked eerily like last year’s 14-0 Jackson State halftime lead en route to a 28-7 beatdown of Berry’s Bulldogs. For the game, PV outgained SC State 491 to 357 yards.
• Peters accounted for all 21 first-half Panther points, throwing for touchdowns of 16 yards (to Ethan John) and 14 yards (to Iyzaiah Rockwell) and scoring on a 17-yard QB draw. Dennis finished with seven catches for 131 yards.
• Neither Prairie View (55 yards, 30 carries) or S. C. State (41 carries, 78 yards) rushed for 100 yards.
• The win by the MEAC champion breaks a two-year win streak for the SWAC champs and gives the MEAC a 7-3 edge in the series.