STATESBORO - The Georgia Southern football squad went through an 84-play live scrimmage Saturday morning at Allen E. Paulson Stadium as it continues preparation for the 2020 season.

While the defense controlled things for the most part, there were several offensive highlights. Redshirt freshman Jordan Pearson got the scoring started with a 38-yard run up the middle. A few series later, true freshman Jalen White busted through for a 68-yard touchdown run, breaking four tackles in the final 10 yards.

White led the rushing attack, carrying the ball nine times for an even 100 yards and a score. Overall, the Eagles put up 318 yards of total offense, 226 coming on the ground. Malik Murray led the receivers with two receptions for 29 yards and Emil Smith had a 29-yard grab.

"I thought we had some great energy out here today," said head coach Chad Lunsford. "It's been since March 12 that we were in a full-scale scrimmage setting and it felt good to be back. I was really impressed with some of the younger guys, but we continue to be player led by our seniors, which is also good."

Defensively, Deonta Bembry had an interception and a pass break up while Todd Bradley led the defense with five stops. Freshman Trevon Locke had a forced fumble as well.

The Eagles will have Sunday off to attend church and will have meetings in the afternoon. The team will have the day off from all activities on Monday afternoon as Georgia Southern begins classes on campus.

"Normally, this would be the end of camp for us with classes starting Monday," Lunsford said. "But with us having an extra week as of today to get ready, we'll continue to slowly ramp up our preparations, take care of our bodies and transition to game prep for Campbell."

With a lot of national attention focussed on the COVID-19 testing results and procedures of teams still planning on playing, Lunsford got a question about the Eagles and how things are going there. Georgia Southern had its first NCAA-mandated full team and staff testing of the preseason this week and the results came back Friday. While Lunsford can't publicly comment what the results were, he told the media he was "very pleased with the way things stand right now. It also validates that we're doing things the right way and our players have bought into what we're doing."

Georgia Southern will open its season on Saturday, Sept. 12 at home against Campbell in a game slated to start at 6 p.m.