BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (Nov. 11, 2017) – A seven-minute stretch doomed any hopes the ETSU football team had of a second-straight win over the Samford Bulldogs.            

            After pulling to within 14-7 early in the second quarter Saturday afternoon at Seibert Stadium, the Buccaneers had a controversial pass interference call go against them and that play ultimately helped ignite a 21-point surge by No. 14 Samford. The end result was a 35-7 halftime deficit that culminated in a 42-7 win for the Bulldogs.

            With the loss, the Bucs dropped to 4-6 overall, 2-5 in Southern Conference play and still have yet to win a road league game since returning to the SoCon a year ago. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs continued what appears to be a run toward the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, as they improved to 7-3 overall, 5-2 in SoCon play.

            On this day, junior quarterback Austin Herink (Cleveland) suffered through one of his toughest outings as a Buc, accounting for four turnovers -- two of which led to Samford scores and one that sabotaged a possible ETSU scoring drive deep in Samford territory.            

            The offenses inability to move the ball – the Bucs had only 211 yards in total offense on the night – served to negate what was an otherwise strong performance for the defensive unit against a highly-touted Samford offense. The Bulldogs had entered the game averaging 416 yards per game, but were held to just 349 yards on Saturday. Samford also had only two prolonged scoring drives, taking advantage of ETSU’s turnovers to add points on a short field. 

            Ironically, after both teams combined to score 42 points in the first half, neither team had found the end zone after the halftime break until Samford tacked on a score with just two minutes left in regulation. The score came thanks to Samford keeping their offensive starters in the game against ETSU’s second string defensive unit. 

HOW THEY SCORED:

First Quarter

• Samford 7, ETSU 0: After stopping the Bucs on a pair of possessions and winning the field position battle early in the game, Samford took over on its second offensive possession at its own 47-yard line. Going to the air early and often, the Bulldogs traversed 53 yards in eight plays and scored on a five-yard touchdown pass from Devlin Hodges to Montrell Washington with 3:43 left in the first quarter. The extra point was good and Samford led by seven.

• Samford 14, ETSU 0: On the Bucs next possession, Omari Williams’ intercepted a Herink pass, setting up the Bulldogs at the ETSU 30-yard line. Passing on all five plays of the drive, Samford extended its lead to 14 on another 5-yard pass from Hodges to tight end Clarke Miller with 1:34 left in the first quarter.

Second Quarter

• Samford 14, ETSU 7: ETSU finally recovered from the early Samford offensive burst on its fourth possession of the game, as Herink completed back-to-back passes of 23 and 17 yards to set up the Bucs with quality field position. Six plays later and aided by a pass interference call on the Bulldogs, Herink found tailback Falon Lee (Macclenny, Fla.) out of the backfield for a one-yard scoring pass. With 12:05 left in the half, the Bucs were back in the game.

• Samford 21, ETSU 7: Unfortunately for the Bucs, the Bulldogs wasted no time regaining a two-touchdown lead, as Hodges needed just one play to find wide receiver Jai’Rus Creamer for a 75-yard score. On the play, Creamer appeared to have committed a penalty by throwing down ETSU’s defender and a flag was thrown into the area of the play. Instead, despite Creamer being all by himself 15 yards down the field, the official called the pass interference penalty on the Bucs. With 11:55 left in the first half, ETSU was again behind by 14 points.

• Samford 28, ETSU 7: After losing their momentum following the controversial pass interference call and quick Samford score, the Bucs’ offense again went three-and-out. After the punt, the Bulldogs marched down the field and scored quickly on a 10-yard pass from Hodges to Andrew Harris with 6:37 left in the half.

• Samford 35, ETSU 7: Samford’s defense got into the scoring fun and capped a disastrous seven-minute stretch of football for the Bucs. With 3:26 left in the half, Herink was intercepted for the second time in the game, as linebacker Christian Stark picked off a pass and raced 28 yards for the pick six score.

Fourth Quarter

• Samford 42, ETSU 7: Despite facing several backups on the ETSU defensive unit with less than three minutes left in the game, the Bulldogs kept their offensive starters in the game to tack on a final score. Tailback Treyvon Paulk rushed in from four yards out to wrap up the game’s scoring.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

• A bright spot for the ETSU defense on Saturday was the second half of play, where the Bucs forced five straight three-and-outs by the Samford offense coming out of halftime. However, the flipside of that statistic was the fact ETSU’s offense was unable to turn any of those stops into points.

• With his sack in the fourth quarter, sophomore defensive lineman Nasir Player (Columbia, S.C.) collected his sixth sack of the year and now ranks tied for fifth on the program’s single-season list.

• The Bucs fell to 1-4 all-time against the Bulldogs, with their only win coming last season in a 15-14 win over No. 18 Samford on Nov. 19, 2016. 

• Herink reached the 5,000-yard milestone on Saturday, collecting 139 yards through the air on 14-of-26 passing. He becomes only the sixth quarterback in ETSU program history to reach that number for total passing yards.

NEXT GAME UP

The Bucs will close out the 2017 season next Saturday at rival Chattanooga. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m.