DAVIDSON, N.C. - The Coastal Carolina football team scored on its first three possessions and added a pair of special teams touchdowns to earn their third road win of the season at 52-27 over host Davidson, Nov. 8. With the win in front of 1,711, Coastal moves to 5-4 on the year, while Davidson drops to 3-7.
Coastal received the opening kickoff, with Darnell Williams returning the ball to the 37-yard line. Starting running back Patrick Hall, in for the injured Aundres Perkins, took the second offensive play the remaining 63 yards, picking up key blocks downfield from several wideouts, to put CCU up 7-0 less than a minute into the game. After a three-and-out series for the defense, CCU started the drive on their own 48 and went 52 yards in eight plays, capped by Hall's second touchdown of the day, this time a 28-yard scamper.
Coastal made it three-for-three, as the Chanticleer defense forced a fumble by Davidson to get the ball at the Wildcats' 19-yard line. CCU then got its first passing touchdown of the season as Tyler Thigpen connected with tight end Brandon Jeffcoat for a six-yard touchdown and the Chanticleers led 21-0 with 7:15 to play in the first.
Josh Hoke opened the scoring in the second quarter less than a minute in, hitting a career-best 48-yarder to put the Chants up 24-0. On the next drive, Coastal's defense created a tough punting situation by backing the Wildcats inside their own 10 and made it count as Braden Cannon blocked Chris Costello's punt in the end zone, where Greg Williamson recovered it and the Chanticleers led 31-0.
Davidson got on the board with John Leverett's 13-yard touchdown run with 6:33 to play in the second quarter, with the two-point conversion pass falling incomplete, and the lead was cut to 31-6.
After a 50-yard return of the second half kick off by Leverett, Davidson immediately connected in the air, as Tom Cook hit Brett Dioguardi for the remaining 48 yards and the two-point conversion from Cook to Barrett Johnson made it 31-14 just 19 seconds into the third quarter. Coastal answered in less than a minute, as quarterback Ren McKinnon used a beautiful fake to Demetrius Morant and went untouched 49 yards down the right side and pushed the lead back to 38-14 with 13:43 to play. After stopping the Wildcats after a brief drive into Chanticleer territory, Williamson again made history on the punt return, going 87 yards for CCU's first-ever punt return for a touchdown and a 45-14 lead with 7:50 to go in the third.
After Coastal failed on a fourth-and-one at their own 15, Davidson wasted no time in connecting from Cook to Johnson, with the two-point conversion failing, and Coastal led 45-20 with less than three minutes to go in the third. The Wildcats continued fighting, as Mark Wilkerson intercepted McKinnon's pass and returned it to CCU's three, where Leverett punched it in to make it 45-27. The Chants came back again, going 80 yards in six plays including a 36-yard run by Hall and capped by Thigpen's 13-yard run to make it 52-27 with 8:26 to play.
Hall became the second Coastal player ever to post a 200-yard game with 201 yards on 17 carries and a pair of touchdowns, while the offense had 417 yards on 60 carries and 477 yards of total offense. The 52 points scored are a Coastal Carolina record, while the defense limited the Wildcats to 206 yards of total offense.
The Chanticleers stay on the road and head to Lynchburg, Virginia to take on Big South Conference foe Liberty, Saturday, Nov. 15. Kickoff at Liberty's Williams Stadium is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
Head Coach David Bennett Quotes:
"It was good to get this one as we start this road trip to end the season. Patrick Hall did shine today for us. He ran pretty hard. He doesn't like Perkins being hurt either. He had his confidence shaken earlier in the year, but we have always believed in him. Today, he got the chance to show what he could do and really did a great job for us. The special teams did some really good things for us today, especially Greg Williamson. But that is truly a team effort what was done there, but we still made some mistakes that we need to improve on. We are coming around, and we still have two more left."
