Furman 42, Western Carolina 7
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Jerome Felton set school and Southern Conference records by rushing for six touchdowns in leading NCAA I-AA fourth-ranked Furman to a 42-7 win over 22nd-ranked Western Carolina in the Southern Conference season opener for both schools Saturday night at Paladin Stadium.
Felton, a 6-foot, 248-pound junior fullback from Madisonville, Tenn., and Walter Payton Award candidate, ran 20 times for 102 yards and scored on runs of 13, 2, 2, 5, and 1 yards in the first half in helping Furman (3-1, 1-0 SoCon) build a 35-7 lead. Felton finished off his performance with a 1-yard plunge on the first possession of the second half to make it 42-7.
Felton’s rushing touchdown flurry, which came on the heels of a four-touchdown performance in the Paladins’ 45-42 loss to North Carolina last week, shattered the school record of five rushing TDs first set by William Gressette in a 38-7 win over Presbyterian in 1915 and matched the following year in a 60-3 triumph over Erskine. It also eclipsed a SoCon standard of five rushing touchdowns shared by three players and was one shy of the NCAA I-AA record of seven.
The win marked the 10th straight home win for Furman, sixth straight victory over Western Carolina (2-1, 0-1 SoCon) in Greenville, and eighth victory in the last nine clashes with the Catamounts.
“I thought we played extremely well, especially in the first half, and Jerome Felton had a career game,” said Furman head coach Bobby Lamb. “Our plan was to run between the tackles with him, and he obviously did that very well. When we get near the goal line, everybody in the country knows what we’re going to do, but he’s so big and we get great blocking angles that it’s hard for people to stop him. I thought this was our most complete performance of the season.”
“It is very simple..they (Furman) did a great job taking their offense and going right at where we were weakest (defensive line),” said Western Carolina head coach Kent Briggs. “You can’t spot a team like Furman 14 points, and we just couldn’t stop Felton. Furman does a great job with their scheme. It’s not like we didn’t know what was coming; we just couldn’t stop them.”
Furman wasted little time in taking control. After forcing a Western Carolina punt on the game’s first possession, the Paladins used a 28-yard punt return by Justin Stepp and personal foul penalty on Western Carolina to start its first possession at the Catamount 17. On second down Felton bolted up the middle 13 yards into the end zone to put Furman ahead 7-0 barely three minutes into the game.
A fumble recovery by defensive tackle Justin Brown at the Western Carolina
5 set up the Paladins’ next score, which came on a Felton 2-yard run at the 9:12 mark.
After the Catamounts sliced the Furman lead to 14-7 on a 1-yard run by L.J. Davis late in the first quarter, Furman answered with three second quarter Felton scores covering 2, 5, and 1 yard for a 35-7 halftime advantage.
Felton closed out the scoring on the Paladins’ first possession of the second half. Moving 56 yards in 10 plays, Furman turned to Felton for a 1-yard run off left tackle at the 9:09 mark to make it 42-7.
Furman, which scored on its first six possessions, compiled a 305-217 advantage in total offense. Cedrick Gipson followed Felton in the rushing column with 70 yards on 11 carries, and quarterback Renaldo Gray connected on 4-of-7 passes for 100 yards.
Bennett Swygert completed 17-of-26 passes for 133 yards for Western Carolina.
Chattanooga 27, Georgia Southern 26
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- Esteban Lopez kicked a 38-yard field goal on the game’s final play to lift the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team to a 27-26 Southern Conference victory over Georgia Southern.
The win ended years of futility for the Mocs whose only win over the Eagles in 19 series games came in 1996.
UTC forced a Georgia Southern punt with 1:32 remaining in the game, and the Mocs set up the game-winning drive at their own 28-yard line.
UTC, 2-2, 1-0 in the SoCon, converted a fourth-down-and-seven play with the help of a GSU holding penalty. On the following play, quarterback Matt Lopez hit receiver Michael Johnson on a 17-yard pass play to get into Eagles’ territory at the 38-yard line. Four more plays advanced the ball to the 21, and the Eagles called three timeouts to try to ice Lopez before his game-winning boot.
“You have to have enough trust in your kicker,” UTC Head Coach Rodney Allison said. “I totally trust Esteban. I didn’t want to put us in a situation where we might throw an interception and not get an attempt. I’ve got a lot of faith in him. Our kids have not given up in a game since I’ve been here. They played their butts off.”
Despite a new head coach and a new offensive system, Georgia Southern looked like the Eagles of old. GSU, 1-2, 0-1, scored on its opening two possessions. Chris Covington scored from a yard out at 5:07 into the game and scored his second one-yard touchdown run on the next drive with 3:38 left in the first quarter. The Eagles missed the first extra-point kick, and Chris Davis blocked the second attempt.
The Mocs got on the scoreboard just before halftime. Matt Lopez took over for Antonio Miller at quarterback in the first quarter. With 13 seconds left in the half, Lopez hit Johnson for an 11-yard touchdown pass in the left corner of the end zone, and the Mocs trimmed the deficit to 12-7.
“I had to make a change,” Allison said. “That’s a decision I made myself personally. I don’t confer with anybody on that because that all falls on my shoulders. Me and the quarterback get most of the blame when we lose and most of the credit when we win. I thought we needed a spark.
“Antonio is not out of the picture now. I don’t know if you saw him after the game, but he was just as happy we won as anybody else. It was just something I thought we had to do.”
Running back Eldra Buckley broke free in the second half. The senior scampered 59 yards at 9:51 of the third quarter to give UTC its first lead, 14-12. Buckley finished with 101 yards on 20 carries for his seventh straight 100-yard rushing game of the season dating back to last year. Three of Buckley’s four rushing touchdowns this season are for over 50 yards.
The Eagles regained the lead on a 34-yard touchdown pass from Travis Clark to Jayson Foster. GSU went for the two-point conversion, and grabbed a 20-14 lead with 3:48 left in the third period.
A 44-yard pass completion from Lopez to Johnson set up a Lopez-to-Gilmore 13-yard TD toss. Esteban Lopez’s extra point kick gave the Mocs a 21-20 edge. His 25-yard field goal a minute into the final quarter enabled the Mocs to capitalize on an Eagle fumble and push the lead to 24-20.
GSU drove 64 yards in 10 plays and retook the lead on Lamar Lewis’ 14-yard touchdown run. The kick attempt failed, and the Eagles held a slim 26-24 lead.
UTC and GSU punted twice before the final game-winning march.
Lopez threw for 177 yards on 15-of-27 passing. Miller was 1-for-3 for seven yards. He threw two interceptions. Emanuel Hassell led the Mocs with seven catches for 56 yards, and Johnson led all receivers for 88 yards on four receptions.
Safety Jeff Phillips led all defenders with 12 tackles, including seven solos.
Covington and Lewis both collected 86 yards on the ground. Clark was 19-for-29 passing for 208 yards, and Raja Andrews was his favorite target with eight receptions for 82 yards.
The Mocs travel to Charleston, S.C., next Saturday to take on The Citadel. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m.
Appalachian State 41, Gardner-Webb 6
September 23, 2006 - BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. ? Dexter Jackson set an Appalachian State University record with two punt returns for touchdowns to break open a close game and lead No. 2 Appalachian to a 41-6 win at Gardner-Webb on Saturday evening.
Jackson took back-to-back punts to paydirt early in the third quarter to extend a 13-3 Appalachian lead to 27-3 just 6:24 into the second half. Jackson’s first return went 86 yards, the third-longest in school history and the first Appalachian punt return to go for a touchdown since DaVon Fowlkes took a punt back 87 yards at Marshall on Aug. 31, 2002. Following the very next series, Jackson returned a 53-yard punt by GWU’s Michael Hanna 68 yards to paydirt and the rout was on.
The Mountaineers added touchdowns on a 10-yard connection by the true-freshman duo of quarterback Armanti Edwards to wide receiver Josh Johnson and a one-yard run by Kevin Richardson to account for the final tally.
Jackson, a junior from Dunwoody, Ga., not only became the first Mountaineer to ever return two punts for touchdowns in one game, but tied ASU records for touchdowns on punt returns in a season and career. The only other Apps to ever return two punts for scores in a career were Dwight Kerr, who notched both in 1969, and Anthony Smith, who had two punt-return TDs during his career from 1989-92.
In addition to Jackson’s exploits, the story of the game was the play of the Black and Gold defense. Appalachian held Gardner-Webb to just 222 yards, including only 101 in the second half. GWU failed to find the end zone for the first time in 33 games and ASU extended its streak of not allowing a touchdown to 128 minutes and 43 seconds, dating back to the fourth quarter of a 21-10 win over No. 12 James Madison on Sept. 9.
The Mountaineers held an opponent to fewer than seven points on the road for the first time since an 8-6 win at The Citadel in 2001 and consecutive opponents to under seven for the first time since registering back-to-back shutouts versus VMI and Eastern Kentucky in 1998.
Senior Jeremy Wiggins recorded his first-career two-interception game to lead the impressive defensive effort. Middle linebacker Jacque Roman, making his first-career start in place of injured starter Cam Speer, led the Mountaineers with nine tackles and the defensive end duo of Buck Buchanan Award candidate Marques Murrell and redshirt freshman Gary Tharrington combined for 12 stops, three sacks and three quarterback hurries.
A series of miscues led to Appalachian leading just 13-3 at halftime, despite out-gaining Gardner-Webb 258-121 in the first half. Things started out well for ASU offensively, as it responded to a GWU field goal on the first series of the game by driving 80 yards in just nine plays, culminated by a 36-yard touchdown pass from Edwards to T.J. Courman. However, Julian Rauch missed his first kick of the year on the extra point and Appalachian’s lead stood at 6-3.
Despite moving the ball with relative ease, untimely penalties, a fumble and a blocked field goal kept the Mountaineers from building on their lead until Edwards scored on an 18-yard run with 1:03 left to play in the second quarter. In all, the Apps were penalized nine times for 84 yards in the first half alone.
In just the second start of his career, Edwards led Appalachian’s 446-yard offensive output by completing 16-of-22 passes for 195 yards and two touchdowns and adding 101 yards and a touchdown on 13 rushes.
The Greenwood, S.C. native became ASU’s first 100-yard rusher in five games.
Senior William Mayfield caught a career-high five passes for 90 yards to lead seven Mountaineers with a reception. Johnson hauled in three passes for 35 yards to go along with his first-career touchdown.
Second-ranked Appalachian (3-1) begins defense of its 2005 Southern Conference title next week when it opens league play at home versus Elon. Kickoff for the homecoming tilt is set for 3:30 p.m. at Kidd Brewer Stadium.
NOTES: Richardson became the ninth 2,000-yard rusher in ASU history with a four-yard run with 8:45 to go in the first quarter ... the junior from Elizabethtown, N.C. has 2,051 rushing yards and 25 rushing touchdowns in just 30 career games ... Wiggins’ two interceptions give him five takeaways (four INT and a fumble recovery) in four games this season ... Appalachian offensive line coach Shawn Elliott left Spangler Stadium in the second half to attend to a much more important affair ... his wife, Summer, went into labor with the couple’s first child during the contest ... the GWU-record crowd of 8,490 included between 4,000 and 5,000 Mountaineer faithful ... the attendance shattered the previous Gardner-Webb record of 6,311, set in 2004 versus Western Carolina.
Pittsburgh 51, The Citadel 6
Pittsburgh, Pa. ? The Bulldogs’ junior quarterback Duran Lawson connected with senior wide receiver Rontreal Tyler on a four-yard touchdown pass at 4:05 in the second quarter for The Citadel’s only touchdown in the game on Saturday when the Bulldogs took on the Pittsburgh Panthers at Heinz Field. The Citadel was defeated 51-6 before a crowd of 30,069.
Pitt, who scored on every possession of the first half, kicked off the game on their first possession, a four-play, 60-yard drive that ended when Panther quarterback Tyler Palko connected with wide receiver Derek Kinder on 20-yard pass for a touchdown. The drive took 1:26 off the clock, at that point the quickest drive of any Bulldog opponent this season, until the middle of the third quarter when the Panthers took the ball 52-yards in one play and 26 seconds for another Pitt touchdown at 9:59.
“They are bigger and stronger than we are,” said head coach Kevin Higgins.
“We thought they would be better than Texas A&M and they were.”
However, the Bulldogs came alive midway through the second quarter when senior linebacker Raleigh Jackson recorded his first forced fumble of his career that was recovered by Deon Douglas at 10:25 in the second. The first play after the change of possession was a 9-yard reception by Rontreal Tyler, who ended the drive with his first touchdown of the season, and only the second of his career, on a 4-yard pass from Duran Lawson at 4:04 p.m.
remaining in the first half. Vandiver missed the point after, making the score was 21-6, Pitt.
Before the end of the half, a Palko 48-yard pass Oderick Turner, followed by a 30-yard pass from wide receiver Darrell Strong to LaRod Stephens for another Panther touchdown. The Panthers went 80-yards in four plays in 1:38, improving their lead, 28-6. Pitt scored again before the end of the half in a 32-second scoring drive with three plays for 58 yards that ended with a 22-yard touchdown pass from Palko to wide receiver Marcel Pestano. Pitt went into the half with a 36-6 lead, totaling 353 yards in offense.
“It feels good to play against a good school, against bigger and better athletes,” said junior quarterback Duran Lawson. “It gives us a chance to measure how we are as a team and as individuals against some of the best. Now we can go back and improve upon our game and try to become a better team.”
Although the Bulldogs were unable to put any more points on the board, the second half saw some improvement on defense as they forced the Panthers to punt for the first time at 12:13 in the third quarter. However, the punt recovery landed The Citadel on the 10-yard line and the Bulldogs gave up their first safety since Sept. 25, 2004 when they loss at Auburn 33-3.
Palko left the game for Pitt in the middle of third completing 15-of-17 passes for 313 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. Following his departure, the Panthers missed the only field goal attempt of the game at 4:46 in the third, the only stop in the red zone for the Bulldogs.
At the end of the third quarter, the Panthers totaled 473 yards of offense in
45 plays, one less play than the Bulldogs totaled 144. Pitt’s 473 in three quarters was more than Texas A&M and Charleston Southern’s total yardage against The Citadel earlier in the season. TAMU and CSU totaled 384 and 377 yards, respectively.
The Citadel defense held the Panthers to only 16 points in the second half, ending the game 51-6. Duran Lawson was 15-for-24 in the game, passing for 87 yards and throwing his first interception since Sept. 24, 2005 against Appalachian State. Lawson led the team in rushing with 12 carries for 34 yards. The Bulldog offense struggled throughout as The Citadel was unable to convert a third-down conversion in the game. The Citadel was 2-for-3 in converting fourth downs.
Both teams ran 58 plays from scrimmage Saturday afternoon with Pitt gaining
506 yards of offense to The Citadel’s 152. Pitt also recorded 22 first downs in the game to The Citadel’s nine.
The Bulldogs will return home to play their first Southern Conference match-up of the season against Chattanooga on Saturday, Sept. 30 at Johnson Hagood Stadium. Kick-off is set for 2 p.m. For more information on The Citadel athletics, go to www.CitadelSports.com.