The Samford football team rolled up a school-record 752 yards of total offense on its way to a 58-21 win over Florida A&M Saturday afternoon at Seibert Stadium.
With the win, Samford improves to 2-0 on the young season. Florida A&M falls to 0-2 with the loss.
“This was a really good performance by our offense,” Samford head coach Chris Hatcher said. “I thought our offensive line played exceptionally well, both in the passing game and the running game. We were very efficient in what we did offensively. We had a lot of long drives and we used lot of clock. I couldn’t be happier with the way that offense played.”
The 752 yards eclipses the previous record of 698 gained by the 1987 team against Maryville. Individually, Michael Eubank completed 24-of-32 passes for 280 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Karel Hamilton caught eight passes for 104 yards. Denzel Williams rushed 11 times for 106 yards and a touchdown, while K’rondis Larry had 16 rushes for 98 yards and a score.
Defensively for Samford, Justin Cooper, Trey Wesley and Ryan White had an interception each. Cooper returned his for a 13-yard touchdown late in the second quarter.
“Our defense played great,” Hatcher said. “We were able to play a lot of people. We gave up one big run in the fourth quarter, and they had one good drive in the first half. Other than that, we gave up some yards here or there, but the defense really played well.”
On special teams, place-kicker Anthony Pistelli was good on all three of his field goal attempts and all six of his extra-point attempts. Pistelli made field goals of 25, 27 and 37 yards. Austin Barnard averaged 55.5 yards on two punts for the Bulldogs.
For Florida A&M, Devin Bowers rushed 10 times for 144 yards and a touchdown. Carson Royal completed 11-of-25 passes for 143 yards and two interceptions.
Samford jumped on top first, scoring on the opening drive of the game. Pistelli kicked a 25-yard field goal with 12:01 to go in the first quarter to give Samford an early 3-0 lead.
On Samford’s second possession of the game, FAMU’s Akil Blount picked off a Eubank pass and returned it 65 yards for a touchdown. The score gave the Rattlers a 7-3 lead with 9:42 left in the first quarter.
Samford took the lead back on the ensuing possession. Eubank hit Gavin Sinclair for a 12-yard touchdown in the corner of the end zone to give the Bulldogs a 10-7 lead with 6:32 left in the first quarter. FAMU’s Gerald Hearns scored on a one-yard run with 48 seconds to go in the first quarter to give the Rattlers a 14-10 lead over the Bulldogs.
Samford took the lead back for good on its first drive of the second quarter. Eubank hit Tony Philpot for an eight-yard touchdown, giving the Bulldogs a 17-14 lead with 13:23 to go in the second quarter.
The Bulldogs added to their lead when Larry scored on a 10-yard run with 6:01 left before halftime. The score gave Samford a 24-14 lead over FAMU. Eubank then scored on a six-yard run to make the score 31-14 with 3:16 left in the second quarter.
Cooper then picked off a FAMU pass and returned it 13 yards for a touchdown to push the lead to 38-14. Pistelli ended the half with a 27-yard field goal with two seconds remaining to send Samford to halftime with a 41-14 advantage.
Williams scored on a 29-yard run to make the score 48-14 with 9:52 left in the third quarter. Pistelli kicked a 37-yard field goal with 6:00 to go in the third quarter to push the Samford lead to 51-14.
FAMU’s Bowers scored on a 73-yard run with 7:20 left in the fourth quarter to cut the Samford lead to 51-21. Samford backup quarterback Devlin Hodges put the final points on the scoreboard, scoring on a 13-yard run with 59 seconds to go to make the final score 58-21.
Samford University Athletics
