| BOCA RATON, Fla. – After Georgia Southern scored on their first drive, Florida Atlantic University football scored 38 unanswered points to win its ninth consecutive game at FAU Stadium, taking the 2021 home opener behind N’Kosi Perry’s 332 yards and four passing touchdowns. Quotable Head coach Willie Taggart: “Well I’m really excited for our team. Since I’ve been here, it’s the first time we’ve played a complete game: offense, defense and special teams, and I challenged our guys (to) that this week. I challenged our guys to a lot of things, I challenged our offense that it was time for us to step up. Our defense has been carrying us since I’ve been here. We’ve never played in a game where we’ve been up and without our defense pinning their ears back, and I told them I want to see what that was like. And our guys, we started off slow there in the first half, and coming into halftime, I was on our O-line and challenged them and our offense once again: (the) time is now and we’ve got 30 minutes to show. We’ve got all our fans back, us celebrating Coach Schnellenberger here, it was good to see our guys respond to all of the challenges that I put toward them and it’s good that they did it with a lot of former players back here. The student section was awesome, it was great to see them really into it and I know our guys fed off of it, so thank you to them and everyone that showed up. That was big time.” The Beginning The Eagles (1-1) notched the game’s first touchdown, in the first quarter, on a 13-play drive. They drove early in the second to the FAU (1-1) nine-yard line, but Akileis Leroy forced – and Jordan Helm recovered – a fumble to snuff out that opportunity. The Turning Point Coming out of a GS timeout with 1:50 left in the first half, and facing 3rd-and-12 from the 19, Perry found a wide-open John Mitchell for the tying score, with Aaron Shahriari’s extra point giving the Owls their first lead. After forcing a three-and-out, FAU took over again with 1:06 left on their own 31, and two Perry completions to LeJohntay Wester – of 16 and 26 yards – set up a 27-yard field goal attempt for Shahriari, which was good. That gave FAU a 10-6 lead (with the 10 points coming in the span of 1:45) heading into the break. The Finish GS went three-and-out again to start the second half. After three rushes for 24 yards to put it right at midfield, Perry dropped a bomb to Je’Quan Burton in stride at the goal line for a 50-yard score. After another punt, it was Perry to Mitchell for his second TD catch (22 yards), and late in the quarter, Perry connected with Wester for 31 yards, his fourth passing TD – making for 21 points in the third. That catch also pushed Wester over 100 receiving yards on the night. Late in the game, after a turnover on downs, the Owls took over on the GS 35. Nick Tronti had rushes of seven and 13, sandwiched around a 10-yard James Charles gain, and then Tronti kept it himself from three yards out for the final tally of the night. Quick Hits After the second quarter forced fumble, Perry completed a 20-yard pass to Zaire Mitchell-Paden, then found Larry McCammon III for 33 yards out of the backfield. But penalties and lost yardage shortened that driveBesides Leroy’s turnover, Marlon Krakue also forced a fumble that went out of bounds, and Korel Smith came away with an interceptionThe Eagles’ late fourth quarter that preceded the last score was extinguished by a Jaylen Joyner sack. While that was the Owls’ only sack, the team totaled five TFLThe Owls rushed for 209 yards compared to the Eagles’ 139. Since 2014, when GS joined FBS, the Eagles are now 0-22 when being outrushedTotal yards-wise, it was all Owls: 541-257 Stats and Records Perry’s final line was 19-of-27 (70.3%) for 332 yards, and he became the first FAU quarterback over the 300-yard plateau since Dec. 20, 2019Wester caught five passes before the half for 79 yards, and ended the night at 124 on seven catches. The last 100-yard receiver for the Owls came on Dec. 7, 2019Mitchell caught four passes for 60 yards and two scores. Those were the seventh and eighth receiving touchdowns of his career. Wester’s was his second, and Burton notched his first as an OwlShahriari’s first half-closing field goal was the second of his career (the other coming Nov. 30, 2019 vs. Southern Miss), and he was a perfect 5-for-5 on extra pointsHeavy contributors to the Owls’ rushing attack was the three-headed monster of Johnny Ford (71 yards), Malcolm Davidson (50) and McCammon (48). Their combined 169 yards came on just 29 carries, or 5.8 per toteTeja Young was among the Owls’ tackle leaders for the second straight game, with a team high Saturday of nine. Caliph Brice added eightMatt Hayball was only called on three times to punt, but averaged 46.3 per, with a long of 57. All three landed within the 50, with none in the end zone for touchbacks, including one that had backspin right off the goal line What’s Next The Owls will have the second of back-to-back home matchups, a 6 p.m. kick next Saturday against Fordham. Tickets are available by visiting HERE or by calling 1-866-FAU-OWLS, and the game will be streamed live on ESPN3 with the home radio broadcast on Fox Sports 640AM South Florida. |
