VALDOSTA, Ga. – Big plays and second-half surge leads #1 Valdosta State to 66-16 NCAA Super Region 2 (Second Round) victory over #4 Bowie State. The was Bowie State’s deepest postseason run and wraps up the Bulldogs exception season at 10-3.
Senior Amir Hall threw for a game-high 287 passing yards, completing 20-of-36 and two touchdowns. Redshirt sophomore Montez Clay and senior Lansana Sesay led all receivers with 92 reception yards each and redshirt senior Gilbert Lunsford accounted for 73 reception yards.
Defensively for the Bulldogs, senior Derrick Tate led the way with 12 total tackles followed by fellow senior Kyle Jackson with eight tackles. The Bowie State trio of senior Roger Richardson and Tre’Von King along with junior William Flowers tallied seven tackles apiece, and redshirt freshman Thomas Riddick was responsible for a half dozen tackles.
Bowie State got on the board first on an Amir Hall to Maurice Williams for 7-yard pass, catch and score at the 8:39 of the first quarter and Gene Carson PAT was good to give Bulldogs the early 7-0 lead.
The Bulldogs defense holds Valdosta on its second drive of the game and capitalizes with a 12-play, 54-yard drive capped off by a 32-yard Carson field goal to give Bowie State 10-0 lead at 13:36 mark of second quarter.
Valdosta State (11-0) answered quickly with a 73 kickoff return by Seth McGill down to the Bowie State 15-yard line. VSU’s Jamar Thompkins found the Bulldogs end zone, cutting the deficit to 10-7. Valdosta State’s Stephen Denmark picked off a Hall pass at the BSU 28-yard line and returned it for six to shift the advantage over to the Blazers at 14-10 with 12:51 left in the second quarter.
A Rogan Wells 5-yard rushing touchdown and PAT pushes Valdosta State lead to 21-10 over Bowie State with 4:04 left before halftime.
Hall connected with Lansana Sesay for a 72-yard touchdown pass trimming Bowie State’s deficit to 21-16 with 2:42 left in the 2nd quarter.
Bowie State and Valdosta State went into halftime with 222 and 215 yards of total offense respectively. The most glaring first-half stat for Valdosta’s Blazers were 114 yards in kickoff returns and possession time of 18:35.
Valdosta State scores on the opening drive of the second half when Wells finds Brian Saunds in the back of the end zone for a 4-yard score. Andrew Gray’s extra point was good to set the score at 28-16 at the 9:09 mark. A 27-yard Valdosta State field goal by Gray extends the Blazers lead to 31-16 with 4:55 left in the third quarter. Another huge play for the Blazers as Wells hits Lio’undre Gallimore for a 33-yard score to give Valdosta State a 38-16 cushion with 3:30 left in the quarter.
The Blazers added seven more points on the Bazemore-Hyder scoreboard with 13:05 to go in the contest following a 12-yard McGill rushing touchdown for the 45-16 advantage. Ivory Durham threw a 38 bomb to Michael Henderson to pad Valdosta’s lead at 52-16. Valdosta State was not done as Ivory drilled a 10-yard TD pass to David White to increase the Blazers lead to 59-16. Valdosta was not done as Ivory basically walked into the end zone with 42.3 seconds to go in the contest to account for the final margin of 66-16.
Courtesy: BSU Athletics
