By Mason Wittner, Staff Writer
Quarterback Trey White said he felt like Saturday was Kennesaw State’s ‘coming out party’ in the Big South.
It proved to a game worth celebrating as the Owls (5-1) proved their worth in the conference with a 12-7 win over Gardner-Webb. The win marked the first time a newcomer won their first conference game since the Big South expanded in 2003.
“It’s a big deal,” head coach Brian Bohannon said of winning the first conference game. “I’ve tried to keep the kids quiet about it for the last two or three weeks, because they like to get ahead of themselves sometimes, but it’s a big deal. It’s a big deal for our program. You talk about building a foundation, stuff you can build on, and you win the first conference game ever. It’s huge.”
Despite being the new kids on the block, KSU appeared to hold their own against a squad with more experience in conference play.
“At the end of the day it’s just football,” linebacker Dez Billingslea said. “They put their pants on just like we put ours own, they bleed just like we bleed, and they prepare just how we prepare. We feel like we prepared pretty good throughout the week, and then this morning we talked about this being just another football game. We didn’t get that ‘men versus boys’ feel.”
The Bulldogs, who racked up 367 yards of total offense against No. 15 Liberty in last week’s upset victory, were held to just 200 yards of total offense against KSU. Entering the fourth quarter, GWU had only accumulated 66 total yards and three first downs.
“Defensively, they had 66 yards after three quarters,” Bohannon said. “It was pretty much shut down central.”
Undoubtedly the biggest play of the game was attributed to the KSU defense as GWU faced a fourth-and-4 on the Owls 6-yard line with seven seconds remaining. KSU defensive tackle Nick Perrotta intercepted a pass to seal the victory for the Owls.
“Coach Newberry made the same call a couple times in a row at the end where he put in a spot to basically just read the quarterback and drop into coverage,” Perrotta said. “He just put me in the right position to make the play.”
In addition to a strong defensive performance, the Owls were able manage the ball offensively and eat up clock – controlling the time of possession 38:40-to-21:20.
“We just followed the game plan,” White said. “We executed a lot better today than in games past. That’s part of this offense. Time of possession is a huge thing and I know the total yards was probably more, too.”
A team with a lot of youth, the Owls have shown great resiliency through close wins against Gardner-Webb and Shorter University.
“It wasn’t pretty all the time and it wasn’t perfect,” Bohannon said. “But you talk about finding a way to win when your back’s against the wall. I just can’t say enough good things about the way our kids responded. We’ve had two games like this at home, and we found a way somehow to make a play.”
The Owls travel to Lynchburg, Virginia Saturday Oct. 24 to take on the defending Big South champion Liberty at 7 p.m.
