Troy Rolls Georgia Southern for 12th Straight Sun Belt Victory

Saturday, November 10

Statesboro, Ga.

12 p.m.

Troy University

8-2 , 6-0

Georgia Southern

7-3 , 4-2

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Troy

Georgia Southern

Troy Rolls Georgia Southern for 12th Straight Sun Belt Victory

11/10/2018 5:41:00 PM | Football

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By: Troy Athletics Communications

STATESBORO, Ga. – Troy limited Georgia Southern's high-powered option attack and the Trojans rolled off 32 unanswered points as Troy won its 12^thstraight Sun Belt Conference game with a 35-21 victory Saturday at Paulson Stadium; the Trojans have now won 20 of their last 23 league games.

Troy (8-2, 6-0 Sun Belt) limited Georgia Southern (7-3, 4-2) to just 101 yards on the ground after the Eagles entered the game averaging 260.4 rushing yards per game. The victory was Troy's first at Paulson Stadium since 1992; Paulson Stadium boasts the second-best winning percentage nationally among active venues.

The win keeps the Trojans alive in the race to represent the East in the inaugural Sun Belt Conference Championship Game on Dec. 1 which will be hosted on campus by the team with the best winning percentage in the league.

For just the second time this season, Troy found itself in a deficit after the opening quarter of play with the Eagles jumping out to a 14-3 victory thanks to a pair of touchdown passes from Shai Werts to Ellis Richardson.

Following the second Eagle touchdown, Troy put together a methodical 12-play, 85-yard drive highlighted by a pair of passes from wide receivers – Luke Whittemore completed a 16-yard pass and Sidney Davis added an 11-yard completion to quarterback Sawyer Smith. Tray Eafford, a receiver, capped the drive with a 3-yard rushing touchdown.

The Trojans took the lead for good on their following possession after Smith and Whittemore connected on passes of 41 and 40 yards on consecutive plays from the shadow on their own end zone. The drive started on the 8-yard line and the Trojans took a 6-yard loss on the first play. B.J. Smith capped the drive with a 6-yard touchdown run to send Troy into the break up 17-14.

Whittemore finished with a career-best 110 yards on just three catches while Sawyer Smith completed 21-of-28 passes for 287 yards and a touchdown. In his last three starts, Smith has completed 48-of-66 passes (72.7 percent) for 604 yards and five touchdowns with just one interception.

Tyler Sumpter connected on a field goal from 42 yards out midway through the third quarter and Whittemore caught his first career touchdown pass, a 29-yard strike from Sawyer Smith, to stretch Troy's lead out to 28-14 after three quarters of play. B.J. Smith capped the scoring for Troy with his second touchdown of the game which pushed Troy's lead out to 35-14 early in the fourth quarter.

B.J. Smith saw his school-record streak of consecutive 100-yard rushing games end as he finished with 86 yards on 22 carries. However, he moved into seventh place on Troy's single-season rushing touchdown list with 12 scores on the year.

The Trojans limited the Eagles to just 161 yards over the final three quarters of the game and once again played behind the line of scrimmage most of the game. Troy recorded three sacks and nine tackles for loss paced by Antione Barker's two sacks and three total stops behind the line.

Quotable – Head Coach Neal Brown
"I thought our staff in all three phases had our guys ready to play and our guys played hard. We felt like the most physical team would win. We're a group that works really hard and plays a really physical brand of football and I thought we did that today."

Sound Smart with Your Friends
• Receivers Sidney Davis and Luke Whittemore completed passes for the Trojans, it marked the first time since 2015 against Appalachian State that two Troy non-quarterbacks completed a pass -- KD Edenfield and John Johnson.

Notable
• Troy finished with 454 yards of total offense in the game and the Trojans improved to 22-1 under Neal Brown when topping the 400-yard mark.

• Hunter Reese extended his streak with a tackle for loss to 18 consecutive games; he finished Saturday's game with 1.5 tackles for loss. Reese now ranks 12th all-time in Troy history with 28 career tackles for loss.

• Troy entered the game fourth nationally averaging 3.4 sacks per game and recorded three against the triple-option attack; the Trojans were seventh with 8.3 tackles for loss and recorded nine against the Eagles.

• Troy trailed Georgia Southern 14-3 at the end of the first quarter; Troy improved to 3-9 all-time under Neal Brown when trailing after one quarter.