Charleston Southern knocked off South Carolina State on Saturday evening by a final score of 31-24 in front of the third-largest crowd in school history. The Buccaneer offense engineered a touchdown drive in the closing minutes to take the late lead and seal the victory.
The Buccaneers got out to a fast start, forcing a pair of three-and-outs and a fumble from the Bulldogs to begin the game. Between the opening pair of S.C. State drives, Charleston Southern found the endzone, taking four plays to go 71 yards with a 38-yard-deep post route to Quay Kindell from Zolten Osborne giving them their first points of the day.
On the next CSU drive, they scored with it lasting six plays and went 79 yards with Ke’Marion Baldwin taking a carry outside for 26 yards to the endzone. The Bucs carried a 14-0 lead into the end of the first quarter.
South Carolina State scored during the second quarter for their first points of the day. They had the longest drive of the day so far with 10 plays and 85 yards to cut their deficit in half. An 11 play, 71-yard drive in the second quarter by the visitors brought the score level at 14 apiece.
After the two minute timeout, South Carolina State had another drive going deep into Buccaneer territory. Ryan Stubblefield completed a pass to the flank to Tyler Smith for a small gain, but lost the ball in the process with Champ Brantley recovering it midair for a 63 yard scoop and score to put the Buccaneers ahead at 21-14 going into the half.
The Bulldogs were able to bring it back even halfway through the third off a Tyler Smith rush to the right from 19 yards to complete a six play, 80-yard drive.
Charleston Southern’s Zach Gordon booted through an attempt 37 yards out to put the Bucs ahead once again. Charleston Southern used 13 plays to go 61 yards with that marking their most plays on a drive of the day. The Bulldogs were able to respond with an equivalizing 50-yard attempt with 3:56 left on the clock.
The Buccaneers got the ball back and put it on the ground for the first three times with Baldwin getting the carries, moving ahead 22 yards. Osborne then found Chris Rhone for a big 28-yard completion down the right sideline. Isaiah Gordon then went for five yards down to the 10 followed by Baldwin punching it in, breaking tackles to find the endzone for the go-ahead score with just 63 seconds left on the clock.
The Bulldogs were able to move the ball down the ball some, but a hail mary on fourth down was batted down by Knai Cook to seal the victory.
Osborne finished the day with 198 yards going 13-28 on his attempts to go with a touchdown pass and an interception. Baldwin got the bulk of the carries, taking 18 of them with a total of 122 yards on the ground to go with two touchdowns. Rhone was the leading receiver with 106 yards and five receptions. Kindell had four catches for 71 yards with Rashawn Cunningham adding three for 19 yards.
Defensively, the Buccaneers were led by Steve Zayachkowsky with 14 tackles on the day. Justin Waters added nine with Mylan Bowen collecting eight. He had 1.5 sacks to go with 2.5 TFLs on the day. Chancy Jordan had a full sack with Malik McKinzie getting a half sack.
The Buccaneers will be back in action next weekend with a trip to Gardner-Webb on deck. The kickoff is slated for 1:30 p.m. at Ernest W. Spangler Stadium in the second official edition of the North-South Barbecue Bowl beginning the remainder of their seven OVC / Big South conference games..