Delaware 27, Georgia Southern 10
NEWARK, Del. - Delaware quarterback Pat Devlin passed for 137 yards and two touchdowns and Andrew Pierce rushed for 186 yards as the Blue Hens topped Georgia Southern 27-10, Saturday afternoon in the NCAA FCS Playoff Semifinals. The Blue Hens advance to face Eastern Washington in Frisco, Texas on January 7 for the FCS National Championship.
Jerick McKinnon led the Eagles on the ground with 101 rushing yards. Josh Rowe led the GSU defense with 12 tackles, but the Eagles could not overcome five turnovers. Georgia Southern gained 257 of its 310 yards on the ground but was held to just 3-of-12 conversions on third down.
After the Eagles fell behind 17-3, Robert Brown ran in from six yards out on fourth down to pull Georgia Southern to within seven points (17-10) with 7:37 to play in the game . Delaware responded by scoring a touchdown on its ensuring drive and the Blue Hens tacked on a 20-yard field goal by Mike Perry for the game's final score.
Trailing 10-0 at the half, Georgia Southern got on the board on its first possession of the third quarter as Adrian Mora booted a 40-yard field goal to cut Delaware's lead to seven. Mora's field goal was set up by a 53-yard run from Jerick McKinnon.
Delaware (12-2, 6-2 CAA) pushed its lead to 17-3 when Devlin connected with Phillip Thaxton on a 24-yard touchdown strike with 1:16 left in the third quarter.
The Blue Hens opened the scoring with a six-yard touchdown pass from Pat Devlin to Mark Schenauer which gave Delaware a 7-0 lead with 13:29 left in the second quarter. The Blue Hens drive took 16 plays, covered 85 yards and took 7:42 off the clock.
Mike Perry added a 21-yard field goal with 2:06 remaining in the second quarter to give Delaware a 10-0 lead at the break.
The Eagles missed an opportunity to take an early lead in the first quarter as GSU drove the ball on its opening possession to the Delaware one-yard line, but Jaybo Shaw fumbled the snap on a third-and-goal.
Georgia Southern finishes the season 10-5 (5-3 SoCon).