Georgia State football defeated by Georgia Southen

By E. Marcel Pourtout, Editor

The Georgia State football team dropped its contest to Georgia Southern 69-31 in the Georgia Dome on Saturday.

The Eagles rushed for 613 yards in the victory which is a new FBS record for the program. Matt Breida had a game-high 201 yards on the ground along with four touchdowns in the victory.

“We’re very excited about the win and I thought our guys played extremely well,” Georgia Southern coach Willie Fritz said. “Our receivers, offensive line and backs did real well. We had no turnovers today. I’m very proud of our offense and that also helps defensively.”

“Give credit to Georgia Southern for coming in here and doing what they did offensively,” Georgia State coach Trent Miles said. “Defensively, it’s an unacceptable performance by us. We didn’t give ourselves a chance.”

Georgia State got on the board first with a 44-yard field goal by Wil Lutz on its first possession of the contest.

The Eagles responded with a touchdown on their first possession to take a 7-3 lead on Breida’s seven-yard run into the end zone.

Georgia Southern increased its lead to 14-3 on a nine-yard touchdown run by quarterback Kevin Ellison with 2:17 left in the first quarter. Ellison had 115 yards rushing for the Eagles.

In the first quarter, Georgia Southern out rushed Georgia State 150-5 in yardage.

Georgia State cut the lead to 14-10 when Nick Arbuckle connected with Donovan Harden for a three-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter. Harden had a stellar day for the Panthers, setting school records in receptions (11) and touchdowns (4). He also had a game-high 186 yards receiving.

Arbuckle had a game-high 408 yards passing and four touchdown passes for Georgia State.

Zack Walker’s nine-yard touchdown run for Georgia Southern gave the Eagles a 20-10 lead at the 10:25 mark of the second quarter.

Harden’s second touchdown reception, this one for 59 yards, made the score 20-17 in favor of Georgia Southern with 9:22 left in the first half.

L.A. Ramsby scored an eight-yard touchdown run for Georgia Southern in the next possession to increase the Eagles lead to 27-17 with 6:12 to go in the second quarter.

Georgia Southern outgained Georgia State 294-264 in the first half.

The Eagles scored on their first play from scrimmage in the second half with a 75-yard touchdown run by Breida. He scored another touchdown on Georgia Southern’s next drive as well from one yard out, making the score 41-17 late in the third quarter.

The teams exchanged touchdowns though the rest of the contest.

On what the team will do to improve, Miles was direct in response. “Keep working, tinkering with schemes, trying different personnel and people and doing all we can,” he said. “We won’t make any excuses, all we can do is go back to work. We’ll evaluate ourselves as coaches and then I’ll evaluate the defensive staff, the scheme and everything else.”