ATLANTA — Conner Manning threw for 318 yards and two touchdowns, and Keith Rucker caught eight passes for 145 yards to lead Georgia State to a 30-24 Sun Belt Conference football victory over rival Georgia Southern Saturday afternoon in the Georgia Dome.
The Panthers pick up two points in the Southern vs. State Rivalry Series and now lead the competition 5-2. It was Senior Day for Georgia State and their last home game in the Georgia Dome.
Montay Crockett caught four passes for 60 yards and returned three punts for 67 yards to lead Georgia Southern (4-7, 3-4), which suffered its fourth straight loss. Kevin Ellison rushed for 101 yards and a touchdown and threw for 31 yards, and Matt Breida rushed for 56 yards and a touchdown.
Glenn Smith caught seven passes for 65 yards and a touchdown and ran for 37 yards and a score for the Panthers (3-8, 2-5), while Robert Davis caught four passes for 76 yards and a touchdown. The Panthers scored 10 points off of a pair of Eagle fumbles.
The story
Georgia State blitzed the Eagles early, scoring on their first three possessions to open a 20-0 lead 8:05 into the contest. Georgia Southern made it a one-score game twice but could not get over the hump.
Trailing 30-17, the Eagles made a late charge with an 87-yard drive, capped by a L.A. Ramsby 1-yard touchdown run with 4:42 to go. Southern converted three third downs, and Upshaw completed passes of 19 yards to Quan Howard and 12 yards to BJ Johnson III to key the drive.
Looking for a few first downs to seal the win, Panther running back Kyler Neal twisted and turned to pick up one on third-and-1, but the Eagles stopped State on third-and-11 to force a punt with 1:31 to go. The Eagles were flagged for an illegal block on the return and had to take over at their own 4-yard line with 1:11 left. Southern moved the ball to its own 17-yard line, but on fourth-and-10, Favian Upshaw’s pass fell incomplete.
Down 20-0 midway through the first quarter after a 28-yard touchdown pass from Manning to Davis, Georgia Southern kicked it into gear on their ensuing drive. Ellison hit Crockett with a 35-yard pass on third-and-short, and Ellison took it 24 yards on the ground for a touchdown on the next play.
The Eagle defense responded with a three-and-out, and Crockett returned the punt 34 yards to set the Eagles up at the State 27-yard line. Breida scored on a three-yard run on the first play of the second quarter to trim the deficit to 20-14.
Southern held State scoreless in the quarter, and Crockett had another nice punt return, this time 36 yards, to give the Eagles the ball at the State 41 with 34 seconds left in the half. Southern brought in Seth Shuman to sling the rock, but the freshman evaded a pass rush and ran for 15 yards to set up a Younghoe Koo 43-yard field goal that split the uprights as the half ended, making the margin 20-17 at the break.
The Eagle offense stalled in the second half while State pushed the margin to 30-17 on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Manning to Smith and a Brandon Wright 27-yard field goal. The field goal was set up by an Eagle fumble at their own 39-yard line.
State took advantage of a couple Southern miscues early in the contest to help build its lead. The Panthers converted a fourth-and-4r on their first drive when the Eagles were flagged for offsides. Smith took the handoff and ran 29 yards for a touchdown on the next play. An Eagle fumble on their ensuing possession gave State the ball at the Southern 26-yard line. Manning threw to Ali Werts for a 26-yard pickup on third-and-11, and the quarterback plunged over the goal line on the next play.
Quotables
Head coach Tyson Summers
“We put ourselves in a really difficult position by going down 20-0. We let them score with the help of a penalty on the first drive and then had the unfortunate fumble on the second drive to set them up.”
“We played our tails off for the last 52 minutes of the game, and I give our seniors and our players a lot of credit for fighting and believing, but it was just too big a hole to dig out of. We had too many penalties and untimely penalties that hurt us. I thought that was something we had put behind us, but it cropped back up on us again.”
On season finale
“We’ll continue to try to develop and get better over the next two weeks and try to send our seniors off on a good note in Paulson Stadium.”
Next up
Georgia Southern finishes the season by hosting Troy Dec. 3, at 1 p.m. in Paulson Stadium. It’s Senior Day, and Georgia Southern will recognize its seniors prior to kickoff.
