Home Sweet Homecoming: Troy Washes Out Georgia Southern

Saturday, October 28

Troy, Ala.

2:30 p.m.

Troy University

6-2 , 3-1

Georgia Southern

0-7 , 0-3

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Georgia Southern

Troy

Home Sweet Homecoming: Troy Washes Out Georgia Southern

10/28/2017 7:40:00 PM | Football

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By: Jace Sanders

TROY, Alabama – Troy busted out of the gates with three touchdowns in its first 10 offensive snaps on its way to a 38-16 Sun Belt victory over Georgia Southern to become bowl eligible on Homecoming at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Saturday.

In the true spirit of Halloween, Troy (6-2, 3-1 in Sun Belt) reached into its bag of tricks on the second play of the game as Brandon Silvers threw the ball back to wide receiver John Johnson, who in turn launched a pass 40 yards to freshman Tray Eafford for a touchdown. It was Johnson's second career touchdown pass and Eafford's first career touchdown reception.

Two drives later, Trojan senior Josh Anderson took the first play 32 yards up the gut – tied for the longest run of his career – to push the lead to 14-7. Anderson led the Jordan Chunn-less rushing attack with 96 yards on 15 carries.

Not to be outdone by his counterpart and only two offensive snaps later, Jamarius Henderson carried the rock 59 yards for yet another quick-strike score for the Trojans. Henderson contributed 77 of the Trojans' 241 rushing yards.

Georgia Southern (0-7, 0-3 in Sun Belt) utilized the triple option offense to rush for 227 yards and two scores – a 3-yard rush by Monteo Garrett at the 7:17 mark of the first quarter and another 3-yard run by Wesley Fields with 2:18 left in the game.

Senior defensive end Seth Calloway and graduate transfer Kelan Chairs both recorded a career-best seven tackles to lead the Trojan defense. Tron Folsom picked off his first career pass to force the only turnover of the game.

Brandon Silvers completed nine of his 18 passing attempts for 102 yards and threw a 6-yard touchdown toss to Clark Quisenberry near the end of the first half – the catch was the senior's first career touchdown reception.

Tyler Sumpter nailed a 28-yard field goal from the left hash to push Troy's lead to 31-10 in the third quarter. Sumpter improved to 3-for-3 on field goals and 9-for-9 on extra points since taking over the Trojans' place kicking duties.

To cap off the scoring, B.J. Smith rushed around right end and found the end zone for his first career touchdown with 1:15 left in the game.

Quotable – Head Coach Neal Brown
It's important that we're bowl eligible. I think it had been since 1992 that we had beaten Georgia Southern. Regardless of what their record is, I sat in this room on this past Thursday and asked everybody to raise their hand if they had beaten Georgia Southern and not one hand came up. Not one player, not one graduate assistant, not one administrative person, not one coach; nobody had ever beaten Georgia Southern. Tonight, we have a full room, and it's a significant win.

Stat Geek
• With Saturday's win, Troy improved to 3-0 in Homecoming games this season; the Trojans defeated both LSU and Georgia State in their Homecoming games, as well.

Notable
• Troy now leads the all-time series over Georgia Southern, 11-6. Today's victory snapped a four-game winning streak by the Eagles dating back to 1992.

• Josh Anderson rushed for his third touchdown of the season in the second quarter; it marked Troy's first one-play scoring drive of the season. Anderson has now rushed for a touchdown in back-to-back games for the first time in his career.

• Troy's 28 first half points were its most this season in the opening half; Troy ran just 24 plays for 264 yards (11.0 yards per play) in the first half.

• Troy held Georgia Southern to just 309 yards of total offense in the game; the Trojans have held their last three opponents to an average of 280.0 yards of total offense per game.