After four games, Georgia State still hasn’t found their first victory. This time, they were the Richmond Spiders’ (3-1) prey by a score of 35-14.
Coming into this game, Georgia State was pressured to win. Sitting at 0-3, their margin for error was shrinking.
On the first series of the game, they came out firing, swallowing the Richmond Spider offense for a very effective and quick three and out.
Richmond ran roughshod over the Georgia State defense with quarterback John Laub. He ran for 73 yards and three touchdowns to go with 223 yard and a touchdown through the air.
Several times, the Panthers seemingly put Richmond in long yardage third downs, but were converted on five out of six times in the first quarter alone.
Georgia State was only down seven after the first, and it seemed that they were still in the game.
Even at the end of the first half, being down 21-7 (the Panther touchdown coming from a pass-and-catch from Ben McLane to Albert Wilson set up by a 50 yard Donald Russell run), the Panthers were still in the game.
Richmond had just recovered the ball after an interception from McLane, but the Panthers were holding tight, stopping the Spiders on fourth down, at the goal line.
Panthers stand was nullified by an offside penalty, and Laub ran in for his second rushing touchdown of the night.
This was essentially the end of the Georgia State rally, who only managed to put up seven points in the second half via another touchdown from Donald Russell.
The Spiders, with the game well out of reach, had pulled most of their starters by the fourth quarter, and the Panthers did as well.
One of the few bright spots was Donald Russell, who ran for 119 yards on 24 carries with a touchdown. Russell fought the Spider defense all night, and several times reeled off good runs after being seemingly trapped.
“It was a Donald Russell night,” head coach Bill Curry said at the postgame conference.
The Panther defense and passing offense were unable to execute well enough to put the team in a position to win the game.
With the loss, the Panthers fall to 0-4, 0-1 in the Colonial Athletic Association, while the Spiders move to 3-1, 1-0 in the CAA.
The Panthers next face William & Mary in Williamsburg, on Sep 29.
