It was a strong start that propelled South Carolina to a 38-27 road win over Vandy on Saturday night in Nashville. The Gamecock offense had of its best opening quarters of the season scoring 17 and building a ten point lead after the 1st. SC would score on two more TD drives in the 2nd quarter. South Carolina put up 31 in the 1st half, the most in an opening half of football all season.
Spencer Rattler would throw for 3 TD passes on the game with two of them coming in the 1st half. He found Xavier Leggette for a 29 yard TD strike in the 1st and Josh Vann from 19 yards out in the 2nd. The Gamecocks got another 1at half TD pass, as Dak Joyner threw out of the Wildcat. Joyner found Antwan Wells Jr. who took it 68 yards to the house.
The Gamecocks got a big play in the run game in that same opening half. Christian Beal-Smith broke off a 52 yard TD run. SC also got a FG from Mitch Joyner as pass of their 31 point barrage. Vanderbilt scored on two TD passes from AJ Swann in the 1st half. Quincy Skinner was on the receiving end of both. He had touchdowns on 2 of his 4 catches on the night. The Gamecocks led 31-14 at half.
Turnovers plagued Vanderbilt and helped South Carolina start fast. Vandy turned it over 4 times in total, SC was plus 3 in turnover margin. They got fumble recoveries from TL Hanna product Zacch Pickens and one from Andrew Huntley. The Gamecocks got interceptions from O'Donnell Fortune and Darius Rush as well.
The SC offense was held in check in the 2nd half though. They managed to score just once after the break. Vandy scored late in the 3rd on a TD run from Pat Smith to make it 31-21. Wells Jr. then got his 2nd TD catch of the night, this one a 17 yarder from Rattler , to make it 38-21 after three.
Vandy scored with 6 minutes left in the 4th, but missed the 2 point try that made it 38-27. SC then got two big defensive plays in the last 5 minutes. The first came on the fumble recovery from Pickens. Vanderbilt got the ball back with 1:40 left to go and a pass from QB Mike Wright was picked off with 1:04 left. SC would take two knees and win it 38-27.
SC became bowl eligible with the win, as they move to 6-3 on the year. Jaheim Bell had more touches than he has had of late, Bell ran it 16 times for 56 yards. Ray Davis paced the Commodore run game with 167 yards on 20 carries. Wells Jr. had 4 catches for 110 yards and 2 TD's. 9 different Gamecocks caught a pass in the game.
South Carolina goes to "The Swamp" this weekend to take on Florida. That game is set for a 4 PM kickoff on Saturday.
