By Chris Raimondi, Sports Editor
It wasn’t pretty, but the Owls are still perfect.
Kennesaw State (3-0) escaped with an 18-10 win Saturday at home over in-state opponent Shorter University in a game that came down to the final play.
The Owls had a 12-10 lead with eight seconds remaining in the game when the Hawks lined up to attempt a 38-yard field goal. The long snap bounced off of the holder, who was not looking in the direction of the center, and rolled past the kicker. After a scramble for the loose ball, linebacker Dez Billingslea returned the fumble 72 yards for a touchdown as time expired.
“Once I saw the ball hit the ground I saw open grass and was like ‘touchdown, touchdown, touchdown,’” Billingslea said. “Before the last play we kind of talked about it and said somebody has to make a play. It’s not something we’re going to rewind. Somebody made a play and we’re going to move on to the next game.”
KSU had not been in a close contest through either of its first two games when the Owls racked up over 100 points combined in the East Tennessee State and Edward Waters games. Shorter made KSU work for the win.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our kids,” KSU head coach Brian Bohannon said. “Every little bit of adversity you could think of, penalties, turnovers, missed kicks, big plays on the other side—but at the end of the day our football team kept fighting and found a way to win a ball game that was daggum hard to win.”
On all nine of the Owls’ offensive drives, KSU moved the ball into Shorter territory and failed to score a touchdown. KSU entered the red zone four times and had eight drives stopped inside of the 30-yard line. The Owls finished with 417 yards of total offense while holding Shorter to 162.
Two bright spots on the KSU offense were wide receiver Justin Sumpter and running back Micah Reed. Sumpter hauled in five catches for 121 yards while Reed took 26 carries for 101 yards. Both performances were the first 100-yard games for each player.
Quarterback Trey White experienced growing pains as he fumbled once inside of the 5-yard line and threw an interception which was returned 72 yards to set up a Shorter touchdown. White, however, rushed for 85 yards on 19 carries with none more important than a fourth down conversion on KSU’s final offensive possession.
Trailing 10-9, the Owls were inside the red zone on the 18-yard line with fourth-and-inches and four minutes to go in the game. KSU called a quarterback sneak and White was immediately met at the line of scrimmage, but a second effort from the redshirt-junior moved the chains to keep the Owls’ chances of winning alive.
“They stopped us initially, but with the help of the o-line, the backs and myself I definitely thought we got (the first down), especially on the second effort,” White said. “I definitely felt myself move a couple feet and that’s all we needed.”
Three plays later kicker Justin Thompson made a 28-yard field goal to put the Owls up by two. KSU’s final scoring drive was 15 plays, 56 yards and took 6:56 off of the clock.
With the offense unable to produce a touchdown, Thompson trotted on the field often and scored all of KSU’s points until the final play of the game.
“I didn’t kick my best today, but I pulled through when it mattered,” Thompson said. “If you miss a field goal you just have to forget about it and move on to the next one.”
Thompson finished 4-for-7 with a long of 42-yards.
The Hawks began the ensuing drive on their own 28-yard line with 1:39 to go in the game and all of their timeouts. The Owls did not allow Shorter to gain a first down the entire second half until the final drive.
Shorter drove 51 yards in 1:26 and lined up to take the game-winning field goal with eight seconds remaining. KSU’s hope never faltered according to Billingslea.
“With all of those first downs, we just had to keep playing, we couldn’t get down on ourselves,” he said. “It was a big time situation so of course a lot of guys will start to step up on offense, so, on defense you just have to step up and match it.”
The Owls took a 6-0 lead behind two Thompson field goals in the first quarter, but Shorter gained the lead back when Aki Coles ran for a 2-yard touchdown late in the second quarter. The Hawks reached the 2-yard line after Wesley Clay intercepted White and returned it 72-yards before wide receiver P.J. Stone tripped him up.
Shorter also made a field goal early in the second quarter and the Hawks led 10-6 at halftime.
“I’m way more proud of this win than I am the last two,” Bohannon said. “What they had to go through today and find a way to win—that’s what it’s about.”
KSU plays Dayton in Ohio Saturday, Sept. 26. It will be the Owls’ second road game. The team has its bye week the following week and returns home to play Point University Oct. 10 for the Homecoming Game.
