Bulldogs tie in SC State spring game
ORANGEBURG, SC—The South Carolina State culminated spring drills with an exciting finish, with the Offense and Defense deadlocking in a 32-32 tie in the annual Garnet & Blue Spring game held at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium/Willie Jeffries Field.
“Defense beat our offense up today by a score of 32-32,” Pough joked after the contest. “We backed the defense off a bit in the second half, but the offense made plays.
“I’m hoping that it’s the fact that our defense is pretty good and that’s why we haven’t had much success against them. We’ve got a good group on defense and I’m looking forward to having them gel and play together this coming season.”
The defense wearing Garnet, while the offense donn white, jumped out to an early 14-0 lead, scoring points for 3-and-out stops and a forced fumble recovery in the first quarter.
Freshman kicker Dillon Bredsen connected on a 30-yard field goal attempt, including a second time for good measure, to make it a 14-3 score.
However, the defense held to a 17-3 lead at the half, and added to that with an interception by Jablonski Green at the 9-minute mark of the third quarter, for a 19-3 advantage.
The offense turned things around after being down 22-3. All three top Bulldog quarterbacks moved the sticks with the offense in the second half, including starter Tyrece Nick, Corey Fields and Quincy Hill.
Hill scrambled for a 55-yard touchdown on a QB keeper play with 1:05 left in the third quarter, but linebacker B.J. Davis took an interception for a 48-yard touchdown on an untimed down to end the third quarter and put the Defense (Garnet) up 22-16.
Nick and the offense replied with a 45-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Smalls, making it 31-24 with less than 8 minutes remaining.
To set up the game-tying score, Fields tucked the ball and ran it into scoring position. From there, with 17 seconds left to play, Nick found tight end Deprince Haynes over the middle for his only reception of the contest, a touchdown.
Needing to score the 2-point conversion to deadlock the game on the final series, the play call went to one of the newest Bulldogs. Nick took the snap, looked to the left corner of the end zone and dropped in a pass to 6-foot-4, 200-pound wide receiver Camryn Johnson (Calhoun County).
Two of the quarterbacks led White team in rushing, with Hill going for 80 yards on 9 carries and Nick going for 75 yards on 11 carries. Tailback Travon Thomas went for 23 yards on 5 carries.
Nick was 6-of-16 passing for 156 yards and 3 TDs, while Hill was 3-of-12 for 50 yards, and Fields was 3-of-5 for 40 yards.
On the receiving end, Smalls caught 2 passes for 75 yards and a touchdown, Tra’Quan Dubose caught 3 passes for 36 yards, D’Marco Zeigler caught 2 passes for 47 yards; Yancey Washington caught a pass for 39 yards and a touchdown.
The Garnet was led by Bruce Johnson with 3 tackles, 3 assists, and a forced fumble; Johnell Brown with 4 tackles, 2 assist; LaSamuel Davis (Bamberg-Ehrhardt) with 5 tackles, an assist; Mikail Griffin-Coleman with 4 tackles, an assist; Shaquille Crouch with 11 solo tackles, 2 assisted tackles, a pass deflection and a tackle for a loss; and Jalen Barr with 3 tackles, 1 pass breakup.
