The Georgia State Panthers couldn’t hold on long enough to capture their first win of the season in their inaugural Sun Belt conference game falling 35-28 against the Troy Trojans.
Georgia State came into its homecoming game as heavy underdogs, but the Panthers came out and played with increased execution, according to head coach Trent Miles.
“We were 17.5 points underdogs and we did not play like that. We played like we belong in this conference,” Miles said after the game.
The Panthers had the lead twice in the game including early in the fourth quarter, but a resilient 3-3 Troy team was able to pull out its fourth victory of the of the season and improve their Sun Belt record to 2-1.
Senior receiver Chris Williams grabbed the game-winning catch for the Trojans on a 54-yard pass from quarterback Corey Robinson.
Williams made four catches for 152 yards and one touchdown. His ability to get wide open made him able to make big plays for the offense.
“Lack of experience and being in those situations,” Miles said he speculated was the reason his defense allowed Williams to continuously get open, but wanted to talk with his coaches before further discussing the lack of coverage on Williams.
The Trojans got the ball off an interception by safety Chris Pickett from Panthers’ quarterback Ronnie Bell as he tried to push the Panthers down field to take the lead late in the game.
“It was man-to-man coverage, and we got what we wanted,” Bell said on his last throw. “The safety [Pickett] made a nice play on it.”
“You make one mistake at the end and they go down the field and cash it in,” Miles said.
“[They] went toe-to-toe for 56 minutes,” Miles said on his team’s competitiveness. “Now if we can go to 60 minutes instead of 56 minutes, we will win football games.”
This was the Panthers second-consecutive home game having the lead and then giving it up to lose by a touchdown. The last was against Jacksonville State where the Panthers lost in overtime 32-26.
The game was tied going fourth quarter at 21 after each team had led once.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, quarterback Ronnie Bell threw to Albert Wilson for a 38-yard touchdown to re-take the lead.
Troy slowly made its way down the field on the following drive.
A 19-yard pass to K.D. Edenfield and a 21-yard pass to Thompson put Troy at the Panthers 16-yard line.
Running back Jordan Chunn rushed into the end zone to tie the game at 28 with just under six minutes remaining in the game.
Chunn ran for 91 yards and two touchdowns, his first in the third quarter to tie the game at 21.
Troy’s running game as a whole rushed for 249 yards, the second most rushing yards in a game for the Trojans this season.
“We prepared for that,” defensive end Shawanye Lawrence said on Troy’s running game. “We just had to step it up and defend that better. That’s on us.”
Troy’s offense still ran ran 102 total plays and 634 total yards compared to the Panthers 422 yards on 76 plays.
Troy’s quarterback Corey Robinson completed 21-of-37 pass attempts for 350 yards and three touchdown passes. Robinson was sacked twice, once by Shawanye Lawrence and the other by Mackendy Cheridor.
Georgia State was able to make big plays in the game, but only capitalized on two of them starting with the fumble forced by Cheridor recovered by Batiste in the Trojan’s first play of the second half.
After converting two third down passes, one to Wilson and the other to Davis, Bell found Wilson for an 8-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 14.
The special teams came up big as well as Demarius Matthews blocked Troy’s punt in the third quarter setting the Panthers up to start a drive on the Trojan’s 23-yard line.
“We called the middle block. I was lined up on the inside…I just got a good jump on the ball. I was able to clear the block and get to the punter,” Matthews said.
One play later Bell found true freshman Robert Davis for a 31-yard touchdown giving the Panthers their first lead.
The Panthers’ offensive line came out of the game battered and brused with Cade Yates, Ulrick John, and Tim Wynn leaving the games with injuries.
The injuries forced young guys to fill in, but they struggled creating time for Bell to make plays.
“We had a lot of back-ups in, and they’ve got to be ready to step up,” Bell said.
Bell completed 22-of-50 pass attempts throwing 370 yards and four touchdowns.
Receiver Albert Wilson picked up 153 receiving yards and two touchdowns while picking up 119 yards on kick returns continuously putting the offense in good field position.
Wilson’s game put him over the 5,000-yard mark in his career for all-purpose yards finishing the game with 5,139.
“That’s Albert. That’s just what he [does], make plays when we need them,” Matthews said.
The Panthers remaining six games are all conference games, and Miles believes his team’s performance against Troy will lead to success against future conference opponents.
“I thought our team proved they belonged. They belong in this conference,” Miles said.
The Panthers go on the road for the third time this season next Saturday to face Texas State.
