On a night the offenses combined for big play after big play, and 899 total yards of offense, a fake punt and a sack by Coastal Carolina in the final minutes figured heavily in the Chants 35-28 Sun Belt Conference win over Troy at rainy, windy Brooks Stadium in Conway. The Chants improved their record to 7-1 overall and 3-1 in the league, the Trojans fell to 4-4 and 2-2.
Leading by a touchdown, Coastal lined up to punt on 4th and four from their own 31 with 3:26 to play. But the snap went to CJ Brewer, normally a defensive tackle but inserted as a blocker on the punt team, and he broke free for 12 yards and a critical first down.
The Chants used up clock over the next three plays and then punted with :25 left to the Troy 24. Any hopes the Trojans had of a miracle finish ended on the next play as Josaiah Stewart sacked quarterback Gunnar Watson, forcing a fumble that was recovered by the Chants Jeffrey Gunter. And that was your ballgame.
But the build up to that point was scintillating as each team delivered blow after blow, but never the knockout punch. Coastal’s Grayson McCall had touchdown passes of 71 and 66 yards, and Chants running back Shermari Jones broke off a 54-yard scoring run. McCall also had completions of 36, 23 and 22 yards. His counterpart Watson fired scoring passes of 42 and 18 yards, plus another completion of 64 yards.
McCall averaged 21 yards per completion, Watson 13.2
Final Game Stats
Here is our postgame recap …
