Saturday’s Peach State College Football Scoreboard: A mixed day in the state
May be updated
Georgia 43, Missouri 29
Having moved up to No. 2, Georgia struggled to get smooth on both sides but had enough in the middle of the game to gain control and maintain a double-digit lead.
A 33-yard TD pass from Jake Fromm to Ridley Ridley put Georgia up 27-7 less than four minutes into the third quarter. The lead was 19 after Jeremiah Holloman’s 61-yard touchdown catch-and-run from Fromm midway through the third, the Bulldogs failing on a conversion attempt.
Missouri got it to within 10 on a Tyler Badie 3-yard run at the 1:46 mark of the third quarter, but the Bulldogs got another big play, a 54-yard Fromm-to-Mecole Hardman TD pass eight seconds into the fourth. Missouri did answer four minutes later, but that was it.
It wasn’t exactly the quarterback dual as hyped.
Drew Lock was 23 of 48 for 221 yards and an interception for Missouri, and Fromm, after a sluggish start, went 13 for 23 for 260 yards, three touchdowns and an interception that was actually more of a fumble.
Elijah Holyfield had 90 yards on 14 carries for Georgia, D’Andre Swift 74 on 16 for a running game that didn’t produce a touchdown. Georgia got a 64-yard fumble recovery from Tyson Campbell for the game’s first score, an 8-yard punt return from Eric Stokes, and field goals of 44, 21, and 40 from Rod Blankenship.
Former Bleckley County standout Tavon Ross had a tackle. West Laurens grad Justin Smith played but registered no stats, and Mary Persons alum Jatorian Hansford didn’t play.
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Clemson 49, Georgia Tech 21
About an hour from home, Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence popped off the bench and passed for four touchdowns to lead the Tigers to the road win.
Lawrence got the call after poor production from starter Kelly Bryant and promptly steered a seven-play, 74-yard scoring drive en route to a 13-of-18 passing day for 176 yards.
Tech fell to 1-3 and 0-2, adding some mop-up touchdowns. Former Northside standout Tobias Oliver was summoned from the bench, and did throw the first touchdown pass of his college career, five yards to Clinton Lynch in the fourth. They hooked up for Oliver’s first completion, of 23 yards, earlier in the fourth.
Oliver ran for 34 yards on nine carries, losing 16 yards. He was 2 for 2 for 28 yards. Starter TaQuon Marshall had 47 yards rushing on 25 tries – with 35 negative yards – and was 1 of 6 for 29 yards passing.
Tech was outrushed, by 102 yards, for the 19th time in 133 games under Paul Johnson, and the Yellow Jackets lost one of eight fumbles. The eight ties the second-most, one short of nine against Miami in 2015.
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Much of that was ‘embarrassing’
The Citadel 38, Mercer 31
The host Bears led 17-14 at halftime, and watched the Bulldogs take the lead with 21 fourth-quarter points.
Then Mercer tied it with 1:11 left, and it looked like the Five Star Stadium crowd – announced at 11,772 but the stadium was barely half full - was getting extra football. Except the Bulldogs’ Rod Johnson returned the ensuing kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown as The Citadel finally won a close game this season.
The loss stymied the momentum Mercer had after last week’s win at top-10 Samford, and improved The Citadel to 1-2.
Mercer quarterback Robert Riddle was hurt six plays into the Bears’ final possession, leaving former starter Kaelan Riley to come up with the miracle, but The Citadel sacked him twice to end it.
Riddle was 25 of 37 for 347 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. Marquise Irvin caught seven for 132 yard. Tee Mitchell’s 52 yards on 16 carried led a struggling ground game that lost – albeit on sacks – 21 yards in the fourth quarter.
Former Washington County standout Will Coneway led the Bears on defense with 13 tackles and a quarterback hurry. Malique Fleming and Michael Freeman had nine stops each.
The Citadel outgained Mercer 475-379, 308-32 on the ground on 59 tries to Mercer’s 29. The Bears lost 62 yards, 48 on five sacks.
Grant Drakeford had 139 yards on nine carries for The Citadel, who got 167 yards on 5-of-10 passing from former Vidalia standout Jordan Black. He added 61 yards on 17 carries.
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Western Michigan 34, Georgia State 15
It was a nice 3-3 game through the first 25 minutes, and then Western Michigan started to take over.
The Broncos turned a 13-9 lead into a 20-9 advantage at halftime with a score in the final 40 seconds of the half, and then scored twice in barely two minutes early I the third quarter for a 25-point lead.
The visitors, playing in a new kind of late-September heat, put together a 15-play, 63-yard scoring drive that ended the third and started the fourth quarter and ate up 10 minutes..
Georgia State managed a touchdown with five minutes left in the third.
WMU outgained GSU 294-58 on the ground, while the Panthers had a 285-234 advantage through the air.
The Panthers were picked off once and lost two fumbles, having the ball for more than eight fewer minutes.
Jamauri Bogan had 126 yards on 15 carries and L. Bellamy 121 on 21 for WMU. The Panthers lost 44 yards overall, and quarterback Dan Ellington was the leading rusher with 35 net yards.
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Kennesaw State 70, Clark Atlanta 13
Clark Atlanta scored first.
That wasn’t an accurate omen.
The Panthers failed on the two-point conversion.
That was an accurate omen.
Kennesaw State trailed 13-7 – again, not accurate – and then kept scoring until the clock stopped, the horn sounded and the Owls were told to stop.
That 13-7 deficit came at the 4:36 mark of the first quarter, lasted for 4:10, and it was 35-13 at halftime.
Dodge County grad and linebacker-turned-RB Kyle Glover had 53 yards on 11 carries with a touchdown as the Owls ran 59 times – 59 times – for 339 yards, an average of 5.7 a try.
Shaquil Terry scored on two of his three carries, and QB Chandler Burks ran for two and passed for one touchdown.
The four interceptions tied a program record, and two were returned for touchdowns. KSU also scored on a blocked punt return.
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GMC 49, College of DuPage 16
The Bulldogs got into the win column far from home, improving to 1-3.
Florida A&M 31, Savannah State 13
Savannah State led 7-3 at halftime, but a 69-yard catch-and-run from Bishop Bonnett on a pass from Ryan Stanley gave the Rattlers a 10-7 lead with just less than seven minutes left in the third.
That awakened FAMU, which upped the lead to 24-17 early in the fourth.