COLUMBIA, SC—Despite the score, the South Carolina State Bulldogs put up a hard-fought battle before coming up short to #10 South Carolina in non-conference action Saturday (Sept. 6) inside Williams-Brice Stadium.
A weather delay pushed the start back to 9:21 pm, prior to its originally regular kickoff time 7:02.
The Bulldogs jumped on the board early off a 21-yard field goal by
Nico Cavanillas Alti at the 1:32 mark in the first quarter to push the lead to 3-0. Costly errors on special teams put the Gamecocks ahead 14-3 quickly on back-to-back punt returns of 65-yards and 42-yards for touchdowns by Vicart Swain.
South Carolina closed out the first half off a 49-yard field goal by William Joyce to make the score 17-3 during halftime.
Three unanswered scores in the third quarter push the scoring margin to 38-3 off a 5-yard run by Oscar Adaway III, followed by a 46-yard fumble return for a score from Jaron Willis and a 35-yard touchdown connection LaNorris Sellers to Vandrevius Jacobs with 2:25 remaining in the quarter.
The Bulldogs would not be denied scoring with a 9-yard toss from
Ryan Stubblefield to
Nicholas Sowell at the 12:32 mark in the fourth quarter.
The Gamecocks would hold on to claim an 38-10 victory over the Bulldogs.
"I have to give credit to South Carolina and Coach Beamer they played a very good game," said head coach
Chennis Berry. "We have a few things to clean up on special teams but overall, I am very proud of the way my team played against a very good nationally ranked Gamecock football team".
Berry noted, "The goal as to compete and come out this game healthy and to learn from out mistakes and we did just that."
Despite the loss, the Bulldogs (1-1) led in several categories over the Gamecocks (1-1) including passing first downs (9-5), passing yards (208-128), total offense (270-253) and time of possession (34:39-to-25:21).
SCSU also converted 6-of-17 3
rd down conversions along with 2-of-3 red zone scoring chances.
South Carolina State returns to action on Saturday (Sept.12) when they host visiting Bethune-Cookman in a non-conference showdown at Oliver. Dawson Stadium on Willie Jeffries Field. Kick off is set for 6:02 p.m.
ABOUT SC STATE ATHLETICS
South Carolina State University is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level intercollegiate athletic program. The university currently fields teams in 14 sports: women's volleyball, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's indoor track & field, softball, men's and women's outdoor track and field, women's soccer and football with all teams competing in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), except for women's soccer.
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