The Furman Paladins fell at home to Samford Saturday, 34-27 marking their 1st loss in Southern Conference play. Furman would show some grit, fighting back from down as many 17 in the 2nd half. They would trail by double digits for much of the game, after Samford's offense found a rhythm in the 2nd quarter.
Furman struck first getting on the board with a 19 yard Field Goal. That came after a methodical, 14 play, 73 yard drive that chewed over 6 minutes off the clock. Furman then went up 10-0 later in the 1st quarter. They scored on a Jace Wilson TD pass to Joshua Harris with 26 seconds left in the opening frame. That was their 2nd drive of over 4 minutes in the early going. Furman controlled the game early , possessing the ball for over 10 and a half of the game's 1st 15 minutes. The Paladins led 10-0 after the 1st quarter.
In the second quarter, The Samford offense would get rolling. They marches the field on a drive of 95 yards, getting on the board with a TD pass from QB Michael Heirs to Jay Stanton. Furman blocked the PAT try and that made the score, 10-6 Paladins. Samford then scored TD's on two 2nd quarter drives. RB Jaylan Thomas took a hand off 28 yards to the house to give them the lead at 13-10 after making the PAT. They extended the lead on another Thomas TD run, this one from 14 yards out. That put Samford up 20-10 with 2:29 left in the 1st half. The Paladins answered with a TD drive late in the 1st half. They scored when Wilson found TE Ryan Miller on a TD pass with 5 seconds left in the half. Samford carried a 20-17 lead into the break.
Samford would own the 3rd quarter, scoring 14 straight to open the 2nd half. They pushed the lead back to 10 on the 3rd TD run of the game from Thomas. He would finish with over 100 yards rushing and three scores. The ensuing Furman drive ended with a missed FG. The Paladins then fumbled on two straight possessions. The second fumble set up a TD pass from Heirs to J.R. Tran-Reno from 6 yards out. That gave Samford their largest lead of the day at 34-17 after three.
The Paladins opened the final frame with a FG , after a big kick return from Wayne Anderson Jr. set them up in Bulldog territory. The two teams would trade punts over the next five straight possessions, as the clock dwindled down. Furman backed up deep on their own end, then out together another TD drive. They went 90 yards on 15 plays in 5 minutes, Joshua Harris got his 2nd TD catch of the game to cut the lead to 34-27.
The Furman D would force a 3-and-out by Samford, getting the ball back to the offense with under two minutes left in the game. Furman's offense couldn't get anything going, turning the ball over on downs in the closing seconds. Samford got the ball back and took a knee to seal their 34-27 road win.
It was turnovers that did the Paladins in on Saturday, as they fumbled three times. The normally opportunistic Furman defense only created one turnover on the day. The Paladins were minus two in turnover margin. That was the equalizer for Samford, as Furman had 10 more 1st downs, nearly a 100 more total yards and a time of possession advantage of over 15 minutes.
The Paladins will have to regroup and refocus this week, so that this one loss doesn't beat them twice. They travel to the Low Country this week to take on in-state and SoCon foe, The Citadel. That game is set for a 2 PM kickoff Saturday with the the "Countdown To Kickoff Show" starting at 12:30 PM. You can hear every Furman game, all season long on The Fan Upstate.
