Trojans celebrate after shocking Tigers

BATON ROUGE, La. — Jordan Chunn ran for 191 yards and a touchdown, Troy’s defense forced four turnovers and the surging Trojans upset No. 25 LSU 24-21 on Saturday night.

Troy, which celebrated wildly with traveling fans in largely empty Tiger Stadium as time ran out, became the first team from outside the Southeastern Conference to win in LSU’s Death Valley since UAB in 2000. The Trojans snapped the Tigers’ streak of 49 straight home victories over opponents.

Although the Tigers (3-2) were three-touchdown favorites, the result wasn’t entirely unfathomable. LSU had looked vulnerable in a tense victory over Syracuse a week earlier, while Troy came in on a three-game winning streak and is among the favorites to win the Sun Belt Conference after a 10-victory 2016 campaign.

Troy (4-1) raced to leads of 17-0 and 24-7 before Danny Etling’s fourth-quarter touchdown passes to Russell Gage and Foster Moreau got non-league LSU as close as a field goal with 1:59 left. But after failing to recover an onside kick, LSU had only 23 seconds to get into field goal range, and any hope of that ended when Blace Brown intercepted Etling’s pass on the Troy 42 with 11 seconds to go.

Entering the third quarter with a surprising 10-0 lead, Troy continued to widen the gap. Chunn slipped a tackle near the line of scrimmage and broke loose for 74 yards, setting up his touchdown on fourth-and-goal from the 1.

LSU appeared to squander a scoring chance when receiver Derrick Dillon fumbled on the Troy 7. But LSU’s defense got the ball right back inside the Troy 10 on Chunn’s fumble, and backup quarterback Myles Brennan found tight end Foster Moreau for a 7-yard TD pass, making it 17-7.

Brennan marched LSU into Troy territory again, but his pass was intercepted by Marcus Jones at the Troy 26. The Trojans then drove for Josh Anderson’s 7-yard TD run.

Troy’s Brandon Silvers was 16 of 28 for 157 yards without an interception.