BATON ROUGE &045; Man, if they could have only played like that all season.

Nah, there’s no reason looking back at what could have been. Alcorn State’s stumbling 2-5 mark through the midway point in the season didn’t have many supporters happy in what was supposed to be the team’s breakout year this season.

But wipe the slate clean. The Braves’ 36-34 upset of 14th-ranked Southern University in Baton Rouge put the season in new perspective, especially since everyone in the Eastern Division but Mississippi Valley now has two losses.

And face it &045; the win over a hot Southern club was proof enough the Braves were better than their 2-5 slate.

&uot;We knew we were a much better team than that,&uot; running back Robert Lester said. &uot;We had the turnovers, but if you take out our mistakes we’re right up there. Coach has been preaching to us about playing four quarters. We played four quarters of football (Saturday), and we came out with a victory.&uot;

A big play from Tyrone Parsons at the end of the game secured it when he picked off a Quincy Richard pass with 14 seconds left in the game. That was the biggest play the defense came up with at the biggest time, but much of the offensive credit went to quarterback Donald Carrie and the running game.

Carrie &045; named SWAC Offensive Player of the Week on Sunday &045; completed 23 of 40 passes for 379 yards and no interceptions to spark the offense to the win. He came up key passes on third down late in the game, including the game-winning 24-yard pass to Charlie Spiller on third and 10.

It was just the second game this season Carrie has not thrown an interception. Author of a league-high 13 interceptions coming into Saturday, Carrie had just one game last year where he didn’t throw an interception and four in 2001 &045; all Alcorn victories.

&uot;We knew all year we needed to work on third-down completion percentage,&uot; Carrie said. &uot;I was missing my throws. All year I’ve spent working on my mechanics, and it finally came through for me. That (winning pass) was a key moment in the game. With (Spiller) being a freshman, that says a whole lot about how focused he was and how determined he was. I think he wanted it real bad.&uot;

Give Carrie credit also for breaking a tackle on that pass to Spiller that won the game. Carrie spent part of the fourth quarter running with the football, including a 14-yard run on second down to get past midfield on the winning drive.

&uot;That’s what good quarterbacks do,&uot; Alcorn head coach Johnny Thomas said. &uot;He had a heck of a game. I’m very proud of him and very happy to see that. He used his athletic ability to break away, made a good decision and threw the football well, and Spiller came up with a big play.&uot;

RB ROTATION &045; Lester had some big contributions running the ball for the Braves, who were without Sidney Dumas in their normal three-back rotation in the offense. Lester and Burks combined for 86 yards.

Both had key runs in three Alcorn drives that stalled out in the red zone and ended with David McConnell field goals. Lester had an 11-yard run to get down to the Southern 5 in the third quarter before McConnell’s 22-yard field goal with 10:05 left gave the Braves a 20-13 lead.

Lester had a big 16-yard run late in the third quarter to get to the Southern 13 before McConnell finished it with a 26-yard field goal to cut the lead to 27-23.

&uot;We’ve got a bunch of running backs, and we can run the football,&uot; Thomas said. &uot;We’ve got (Jeremy) McCoy, Lester and Burks, and we’re not missing any running backs. All of them can play very well. Lester didn’t play last week, and he played very well (Saturday).&uot;

Burks didn’t get 100 yards after doing so in his last two games, but Lester had his most action Saturday after playing just on special teams at Texas Southern.

&uot;I’m being humble &045; I give all the praise to God,&uot; Lester said. &uot;All we wanted was the ball at the end of the game.&uot;