Georgia Southern rebounds to impress Marshall 24-23

– By David Walsh

The Georgia Southern fans in attendance to celebrate Whiteout Night had little to cheer about for three quarters as Marshall led the Eagles 23-3.

Then came a safety on an intentional grounding, a score after halftime and two points on turnovers by Marshall, helping the home team score 21 points in the fourth quarter and an impressive 24-23 win at Allen E. Paulson Stadium in Statesboro. Ga.

The winning goal came a minute before the end of the fourth quarter on a 34-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Dexter Williams II to Derwin Burgess Jr., which gave Georgia Southern its first lead.

Then, on a second-and-6 at the 28th minute, DeMarcus Stampley II intercepted a pass from Stone Earle to seal the result as the Eagles (4-2, 2-0) moved into first place in the Sun Belt Conference East Division advanced.

“When you have the opportunity to knock out teams in this league, you have to do it,” Herd coach Charles Huff said on his postgame radio show. “Let them hang around and that’s what you get. We missed too many chances. Turn the ball over and there were penalties today. Sometimes you have to fail to learn a lesson. Hopefully we learned a lesson tonight. We have to finish.”

Earle started for the Herd (3-3, 1-1) and led the visitors to three field goals and a 9-3 lead before exiting in the second. His TD run was paid back by a penalty. Then Braylon Braxton came off the bench and led his team with 94 yards (second) and 80 yards (third) for a 23-3 lead.

Earle returned with 22 seconds left in the third. In the fourth, he was called for intentionally hitting the ground in the end zone for a safety. The Eagles would score on the next possession, cutting the deficit to 23-11 with 6:31 left and the momentum began.

“I can’t leave it up to the referees,” Huff said. “You have to finish games. We had opportunities to get the ball into the end zone to put it behind us, but we didn't do that.

Braxton would then come back and fumble the ball away twice, and Georgia Southern would capitalize on it each time to score points.

During Georgia Southern's scoring drive after the Marshall safety, Eagles quarterback JC French was injured after a 12-yard run. Enter Williams, a transfer from Indiana who had seen little action before Saturday. He hit a 34-yard pass to Buckley-Shelton and later scored on a 1-yard run with 6:31 to play after a TD pass was overruled after review.

A few minutes later, Braxton returned to quarterback and lost the ball with a fumble. The call was ended after verification. Williams would run 20 yards to the Herd 20 and David Mbadinga would reach the end zone from 3 yards out with 2:15 left to play to cut the lead to 23-18. Mbadinga completed a 17-yard run before the TD.

Braxton would stay in. His 16-yard run was negated by a hold call. On second-and-17 at the 33, Braxton failed again, Latrell Bullard recovered for the Eagles and the call stood after another review.

The Eagles then hurried with 1:55 left on the clock. The Herd would get a sack, but just moments later, Williams hit Bunkley-Shelton for 19 yards for a first down at the Marshall 43. Two plays later, Williams found Burgess for the go-ahead score, capping a 7-play win 65 yards travel in 55 seconds.

Then came Earle's game-winning pick for the Herd's third turnover of the night. Marshall had won six straight in the series and now leads 6-3 overall.

On Braxton's two scores before fumbles, he found tight end Toby Payne on passes of 3 and 11 yards. One of Verhoff's field goals was a career-best 51-yarder.

Marshall is back in action Thursday against Georgia State. Game time at Joan C. Edwards Stadium is 7 p.m. ESPN2 will broadcast the game live.

Mistakes at inopportune times fueled the Eagles' recovery.

“When you do that (penalties), every ball is magnified, every play is magnified, especially on the road,” Huff said. “We took the audience out at the beginning and let them back in again. There were too many opportunities in the first half where we could have scored touchdowns instead of three. If you let teams hang around, these things show up at the end of games. Of course we planned to use both quarterbacks. You can't turn the ball over no matter who's in there. If you do that, you put yourself in situations like this.”