STATESBORO, Ga. – Jesse Hartley's 54-yard field goal as time expired capped Georgia Southern’s thrilling 41-38 win over South Dakota State, Saturday afternoon (Oct. 6) at Paulson Stadium. Hartley set a record in the process.
Hartley’s kick was the longest ever by an Eagle to win a game on the final play. It marked the first time since Jonathan Dudley’s 24-yard FG that the Eagles (4-1 overall) won a game on the final play (overtime at Northeastern in 2005 season-opener). Hartley’s career-best 54-yarder was the longest since Chris Chambers nailed a 57-yard attempt at the end of the first half at Oregon State on September 18, 1999.
Some dramatic plays set the stage for the exciting win. With the game tied and GS facing 4th-and-1 from the 50, South Dakota State (2-4) stopped Jayson Foster for no gain and took over on downs. The Jackrabbits drove down to the Eagles’ 21 with 2:23 left and Parker Douglass came on to try a 38-yard FG.
The senior kicker, who was perfect on the year (11-of-11), sailed it wide right and the Eagles took over. GS drove to its 37 but had to punt. Daniel Jordan pinned the Jackrabbits to their own 30. On the first play of the drive, Ryan Berry dropped back to pass but sophomore Carson Hill stepped in front of the pass and recorded the first interception of his career.
Foster scrambled for six yards and hit Lamar Lewis for 11, which put the Eagles on the SDSU 37 with seven seconds left. Head coach Chris Hatcher sent Hartley out for the kick, which easily covered the distance for the win.
The Eagles built a 24-point halftime lead thanks to stellar defense play during the first 30 minutes.
Georgia Southern’s defense held the Jackrabbits on the opening drive of the game and the offense took over on its own four. The Eagles staged a 13-play drive and took a 7-0 lead thanks to Lewis’ 1-yard plunge and Hartley’s extra point.
On the Jackrabbits’ next drive, Cory Koenig fumbled the ball. Chris Rogers picked up the loose ball and raced 46 yards to the endzone with 6:58 left in the first quarter.
Later in the quarter Foster hit the right corner but when he was tackled he fumbled. SDSU recovered and would eventually put points on the scoreboard. Berry found JaRon Harris for a 30-yard touchdown pass two minutes into the second quarter cutting the Eagles’ lead to 14-7.
Larry Beard tied a Georgia Southern record when he scooped up Kyle Minett’s fumble forced by Damon Suggs and raced 29 yards for a touchdown. A 2001 playoff win over Florida A&M was the only other time that the Eagles scored twice in the same game off a fumble return.
Hartley converted a 24-yard field goal with 1:27 left in the half. The opportunistic defense came through again when Rogers forced a fumble after Berry completed a pass to Chris Doblar and E.J. Webb pounced on the loose ball. Facing 3rd-and-goal from the seven, Foster hit Irving Campbell in the back of the endzone and the Eagles took a 31-7 lead into the locker room.
In the first half alone Foster set a career-high throwing for 164 yards on 14-of-16 passing. Campbell also set career-highs with six receptions and 117 receiving yards. In fact the senior wide receiver had only 146 reception yards to that point in his two-year career.
Douglass hit a 32-yard attempt with 10 minutes left in the third making it 31-10 Eagles.
Foster threw just his fourth interception of the year on the ensuring drive. Tyler Koch picked it off at the Jackrabbits’ 29 and raced 71 yards for a touchdown. Later, Berry hit Chris Wagner on a 14-yard scoring strike to cap a 9-play, 64-yard drive with 3:14 left in the third quarter to make it 31-24 Georgia Southern.
The Eagles were driving and facing 3rd-and-long. Foster could have ran for a first down but tried hitting a wide open Raja Andrews and just overthrew him. Jordan went back to punt but SDSU was called for roughing the kicker and the drive stayed alive.
Four plays later Foster kept his streak alive as the Eagles added to their lead early in the fourth quarter, a streak in which he has registered a rushing TD in every game as the team’s starting quarterback. His keeper up the middle from 14 yards out was his first rushing TD of the game but more importantly gave GS a 38-24 lead.
SDSU went for it on 4th-and-goal from the two. Berry found Wagner in the right corner for a touchdown, making it 38-31 Eagles with 10:12 remaining in the game. They tied the game with 6:28 when Minett scored from seven yards out.
Hatcher stated how big of a win that was for his Georgia Southern team.
"Of course we came out and played great on defense early on. Offensively we struggled all night. I know we were able to punch a couple in there late in the half, but they pretty much had our number. They were more physical up front, but again, when it’s all said and done, we made one more play than they did. That’s all that matters. We’ll take them anyway we can get them," said Hatcher. "We came out firing on all cylinders. We had a great first drive and got a touchdown. The defense scooped-and-scored and we’re up 14-0. We have a great drive going again, but we fumbled the ball. I knew all game long, I just didn’t feel comfortable today and I was afraid that one was going to come back and get us. But then the defense scored again and we were able to get a field goal. And then at the end half it was a good throw to Irving Campbell who normally doesn’t play on that side.
"We were complacent – I was concerned about that. If we don’t force the two turnovers and scoop-and-score, that’s a whole different ball game. We had not consistently moved the ball the whole day. They were taking away what we do the best and that’s why we had to throw a little bit more. But we knew we had some deep passes that they had shown us early in the game that we could come back to. There in the second half we had a drop over the middle, we overthrew Raja (Andrews) twice and if we’re just able to complete just one of those, we may not have needed to go down to the last second."
Foster set career-highs of 23-of-31 passing for 225 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for 92 yards on 25 carries. The 225 passing yards are the 11th-most in Eagle history and third-highest total since 1998.
Campbell’s career-high numbers included seven catches for 122 yards and a touchdown. It marked the first time this year an Eagle registered 100-plus receiving yards. Andrews recorded six receptions for 26 yards and Joe Haynie had five catches for 48 yards, the first receptions of his career.
Chris Covington recorded a career- and team season-high 11 tackles. Hill added nine stops to go with his interception and two pass break-ups. Rogers had two tackles to go with his forced fumble and TD fumble recovery – the first touchdown of his career.
Berry finished 25-of-47 for 335 yards and three scores. Harris caught six passes for 122 yards and Koenig recorded 87 net rushing yards. Total offense for both teams was nearly equal: 451 for the Eagles and 450 for SDSU.
Andy Hoogeveen had 11 tackles and a fumble recovery for the Jackrabbits.
Georgia Southern returns to Southern Conference play next Saturday (Oct. 13), traveling to Elon. Kickoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. and will be televised live on SportSouth.
NOTES: Senior running back Dusty Reddick recorded a 35-yard run up the middle. He had only 24 career rushing yards up to that point... The last time Georgia Southern returned a fumble for a touchdown was against Appalachian State last year at Paulson Stadium, a span of nine games... The last time an opponent returned an interception for a TD was Elon last year at Paulson Stadium, a span of 10 games... The Eagles broke up nine SDSU passes, three by Brandon Jackson and two each from Hill and Ronnie Wiggins .
| Final |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Score |
| South Dakota St |
0 |
7 |
17 |
14 |
38 |
| Ga Southern |
14 |
17 |
0 |
10 |
41 |