Turnovers Costly in Overtime Loss
9/22/2007 4:28:00 AM | Football
STATESBORO, Ga. ? Turnovers proved too costly to overcome as Georgia Southern dropped a 45-38 overtime decision to Chattanooga Saturday night (Sept. 22) at Paulson Stadium. The Eagles (2-1 overall, 0-1 SoCon) lost their first game of the season.
The Mocs (1-2, 1-0) scored 21 points off four Georgia Southern turnovers, including two costly fumbles in the second half.
One of those fumbles led to UTC taking over in Georgia Southern territory. Chattanooga took a touchdown lead late in the game when on third down Erroll Wynn scored on a ?Statue of Liberty' play from 19 yards out for a 38-31 lead with 3:32 left. But the Eagles bounced right back.
Tim Camp took the kickoff and returned it 33 yards to the Chattanooga 42. On 3rd-and-1, Foster took a pass for seven yards. UTC was flagged for a late hit, putting the Eagles on the 21. Three plays later Jayson Foster rushed for 16 yards down to the three. From there Mike Hamilton took it up the middle for his second TD of the game. Jesse Hartley's extra point would eventually send the game into overtime.
GS won the overtime coin toss and elected to defer. On the second play in OT Antonio Miller found Thomas Hinton for a 25-yard touchdown.
The Eagles gained three yards on two rushes and had an incomplete pass to set up 4th-and-9. Foster's pass was just over the reach of Michael McIntosh in the endzone and the Mocs came away with their second straight win in the series, and just third overall in 21 meetings.
“Well it's very disappointing anytime you get beat. That's something I'm used to not happening to me very much. What is very disappointing is I thought we didn't play, or coach, to the best of our ability. We always talk about playing hard, which I though we played hard, and then playing to the best of our abilities. We flounder some opportunities there in the first half and then the second half we came out on fire, but you can't turn the ball over and expect to beat a good football team like Chattanooga,” said head coach Chris Hatcher.
The Eagles held Chattanooga to a 3-and-out on the opening drive, and after a penalty took over on their own eight. Foster capped a 9-play drive, in which he was 4-for-4 passing, when he eluded two Mocs, hit the left corner and scored from 36 yards out. Hartley's extra point put the Eagles ahead 7-0.
Chattanooga tied the game on its next drive with 4:45 left in the first quarter. Carson Hill intercepted Miller's pass in the endzone but was flagged for pass interference. On 2nd-and-goal Wynn scored from two yards out. UTC recovered an onsides kickoff but the Eagles defense held to a 3-and-out.
On the punt Foster caught it on his own 14 and raced 86 yards for a touchdown but an offside penalty on UTC and hold on the Eagles negated what would have been a record-setting TD for the senior (most punt returns for a TD in a career, two heading into the contest).
Edward Sawyer recorded his first career interception, picking off Foster and returning it to the GS 18. Three plays later Miller found Matthew Angeloni in the corner of the endzone, spotting the Mocs a 14-7 lead late in the first.
Craig Camay added a 25-yard field goal to make it a 17-7 lead with nine minutes left in the first half.
Georgia Southern responded with another 9-play scoring drive. Foster found Camp on a key 22-yard completion. Hamilton, who missed last week's game with an injury, turned in a 10-yard run to set up 1st-and-goal from the three. The junior running back punched it in from there cutting the deficit to 17-14 with just under six minutes remaining.
Foster completed a career-high 11 passes in the first half alone (in 12 attempts) for 97 yards. He added to impressive career totals to start the second half.
On 3-and-11, Foster broke through the line and it was off to the races for a 60-yard TD score to put the Eagles back in front 21-17. It was the fourth-longest run in his career, the 16th career multi-TD game and 14th career 100-yard outing.
Facing 4th-and-2 from the Mocs 14, Foster hit paydirt again for his third rushing TD of the game and a 28-17 lead with 10:11 left in the third quarter.
Miller connected with Blue Cooper on a 5-yard touchdown pass, making it 28-24 Eagles with 6:23 remaining in the third.
The Eagles were driving down the field but Foster had the ball knocked loose. Jeff Phillips picked up the ball and raced 63 yards for a score, making it 31-28 Mocs with 1:38 left in the quarter. It was the first time in a span of 53 games an opponent returned a fumble for a touchdown (East Tennessee State at Paulson in 2002).
On 3rd-and-goal from the seven, Foster was tripped up at the two. Hartley came on and converted a tying 19-yard field goal with 10:33 left in the game.
Georgia Southern lost their third straight overtime game in five career extra-period outings.
“I still think that we were as good as them today. We just had some costly turnovers that put us in a bind. But we kept fighting all the way there until the end and got it in to overtime. I thought about going for two, but I thought we fought so hard, I thought we could pull it out in overtime. I don't think I've ever won an overtime game. So I need to stay out of overtime,” said Hatcher.
Foster became the only player in Georgia Southern history to record three consecutive 200-yard rushing games to start the season. He joins Adrian Peterson as the only Eagles to record three straight 200-yard games, and in the process Foster tied a SoCon record as well. His 694 rushing yards so far this year not only leads the nation but ranks as the third-highest yardage total in a three-game span in SoCon history.
The senior quarterback, who entered the game as the nation's leading rusher, had 210 yards on 26 carries and three TDs. He also completed 17-of-20 passes for 120 yards.
He recorded his 300th career point, moving into fourth place on the Georgia Southern all-time list.
Hamilton totaled 71 yards on 22 carries for two TDs. Raja Andrews caught seven of Foster's passes for 37 yards. Andrews also averaged 35 yards on three kickoff returns.
Freshman E.J. Webb led the defense with eight tackles and two pass break-ups. Brandon Echols added seven stops and junior linebacker Justin Callaway also recorded a career-high seven tackles.
Wynn paced the Mocs for 125 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Miller completed 12-of-27 passes for 161 yards and a career-high three scores. Chris Camacho and Steven Mills had 12 tackles apiece.
Chattanooga returns home next week to face The Citadel. Georgia Southern continues its three-game homestand next Saturday (Sept. 29) against Western Carolina. The Southern Conference meeting will be televised live on CSS with kickoff scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
