Georgia Southern rallies in 4th to beat Herd, 24-23

BY GRANT TRAYLOR

Associate Athletic Director of Strategic Communications

STATESBORO, Ga. – Marshall Football suffered a 24-23 loss to Georgia Southern on Saturday night at Allen E. Paulson Stadium.

With the loss, Marshall falls to 3-3 overall and 1-1 in the league.

“It’s a great learning lesson,” Marshall Football coach Charles Huff said. “When you don’t take advantage of opportunities to put teams away in this league and you let them hang around, this is what you get. Hopefully, we learn from it. Way too many missed opportunities. The things we didn’t do in games we were successful – turnovers, penalties – showed up today.”

Marshall tight end Toby Payne caught two touchdown passes for the Herd while field goal kicker Rece Verhoff connected on all three field goal attempts, including a career-long 51-yarder in the first quarter.

The Herd used a balanced offensive attack behind quarterbacks Stone Earle and Braylon Braxton to produce a 23-3 lead after three quarters, but penalties and turnovers plagued the Herd in the fourth quarter as the Eagles rallied for the win.

On the defensive side, Deeve Harris and Jacobie Henderson produced turnovers for the Herd, who had seven tackles for loss and five sacks in the game.

Harris finished with 1.5 sacks and a forced fumble that fellow defensive lineman TyQaze Leggs recovered that led to Verhoff’s career-long 51-yard field goal.

Henderson had an interception for the second consecutive week, ending a promising Georgia Southern drive early in the third quarter. Marshall then drove 80 yards as Braxton found Toby Payne for an 11-yard touchdown that put the Herd up 23-3.

Payne had a pair of touchdown receptions in the contest – both from Braxton, who finished 9 of 12 for 92 yards and two scores. Earle also finished 9 of 17 for 97 yards for the Herd.

Marshall returns to action at 7 p.m. on Thursday when the Herd hosts Georgia State at Joan C. Edwards Stadium for a game being nationally-televised by ESPN2.

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