Jacksonville State was riding a four-game winning streak and traveled to Liberty’s Williams Stadium with the host Flames, where it had posted 12 home wins.

Only one of these runs survived Wednesday evening.

Jax State picked up its fifth straight win with a 31-21 road win over Conference USA favorite Liberty on Wednesday.

With the win, Jax State is 4-0 in the Conference USA standings, tied with Western Kentucky at the top of the conference.

“It’s important because they haven’t been beaten here for a long time,” said Rodriguez. “Secondly, they were the favorites coming into the league and wanting to win the championship. We’ll enjoy it for a day and then we’ll have a lot ahead of us. We won’t look too far into the future. We’re looking forward to the next one and trying to get better.”

Tre Stewart dominated again with his second straight 200-yard rushing night, rushing for 232 yards and four touchdowns on 27 carries in the win. He scored from 75, 28, 1 and 1 yards in the Gamecocks’ victory and totaled the fifth-most rushing yards in program history.

The Limestone University transfer has scored 12 touchdowns in the last four games for Jax State.

“What a great find for us, right?” said Rodriguez. “From Limestone, a Division II school, he is not only a great runner, but a great competitor. I think you’ve seen that a lot and he carried a lot for us tonight.”

Jax State racked up 363 rushing yards in the win, with quarterback Tyler Huff rushing for 130 yards and 20 carries; He also completed six of his 10 pass attempts for 95 yards. The Gamecocks also had over 300 yards in their win over MTSU last week.

Gemiere Latimer had the game’s only interception at a crucial point, intercepting Kaidon Salter with 2:34 to play to bring Jax State to the Liberty 1-yard line; Tre Stewart scored two plays later to give the Gamecocks a 10-point lead.

The defense held Liberty to its lowest point total of the season and its lowest since the Flames’ 21-16 victory over Sam Houston last season.

Redshirt freshman kicker Garrison Rippa made a key 25-yard field goal with 9:22 left in the third.

Rodriguez said while the win was important for the program, penalties caused problems in maintaining momentum and kept the team from clinching the game. Jax State had 12 penalties for 115 yards in the win.

“We played really hard,” Jax State coach Rich Rodriguez said. “What’s really disappointing is that we had so many penalties. I have to watch the film, but that killed us on both sides of the ball, so we have to clean that up.

“But the effort was excellent. We didn’t throw the ball particularly well, but Tyler did: he wasn’t 100%. Tre Stewart was just phenomenal and it’s a great road win against a pretty good team.”

Jax State’s five-game winning streak follows a three-game losing streak to start the season. This is the first five-game winning streak in a fall season since 2018.

“I sleep better; That’s definitely changed,” Rodriguez said. “We kept the same process. I know coaches talk about it a lot, but I was kind of disappointed or discouraged in the first three games – not discouraged, but disappointed – because it didn’t reflect our training. We finally got some momentum going and now it’s paying off for us.”

Jax State (5-3, 4-0 CUSA) will travel to Louisiana Tech on November 9th.