Eagles hang 47 on Vandals, improve to 4-0 in Sun Belt

Hayden Boudreaux

After hanging on for most of the game the Idaho Vandals were defeated by the Georgia Southern football team 47-24 after putting up over 500 yards of offense.

The Vandals put together an impressive drive to open the game, completing two passes over 12 yards, but the Eagle defense was able to hold them to a field goal. On the ensuing possession for the Eagles sophomore running back Matt Brieda answered with a 52 yard run to set up sophomore quarterback Kevin Ellison for a five yard touchdown run, 7-3 Eagles.

Vandal quarterback Matt Linehan had an answer of his own with a 44 yard pass but a failed fourth down conversion gave the Eagles breathing room. Ellison hooked up on a touchdown pass to junior receiver B.J. Johnson and after a failed extra point the lead was extended 13-3.

Idaho running back Elijah Penny plunged into the endzone on the first drive of the second quarter to bring the Vandals within three. Eagle sophomore quarterback Favian Upshaw checked into the game and flicked a couple nice passes that were capped off by an 18 yard touchdown to Brieda. A missed field goal by the Eagles ended the half with the score at 20-10 Georgia Southern.

The Eagles opened the half with their rushing attack, working the ball down the field and scoring on a ten yard run from Ellison. On their next possession the Eagles scored again on a dive by redshirt freshman running back L.A. Ramsby, after another missed extra point the score sat at 34-10.

With just over three minutes left in the third quarter Idaho was able to punch into the endzone and after a successful two point conversion shortened the lead to 33-18. After a fumbled exchange by the Eagles, Idaho took over with a short field and put the ball in the endzone again and a failed two point conversion made it 33-24.

After a punt things looked grim for the Eagles before a shovel pass from Linehan was intercepted by junior safety Matt Dobson and ran in for a touchdown to move the Eagles to a 40-24 game.  With time winding down on the clock the Eagle running back Ean Days walked into the endzone for a 47-24 win.