LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Kennesaw State football captured another hard-fought road victory to remain unbeaten in Conference USA play with its seventh-straight win, edging New Mexico State, 24-21, on Saturday afternoon at Aggie Memorial Stadium.
The Owls (7-2, 5-0 Conference USA) raced out to an early lead thanks to back-to-back touchdown connections between quarterback
Amari Odom and wideout
Gabriel Benyard.
Benyard hauled in 34- and 23-yard touchdowns to stretch out a 14-0 lead for KSU before linebacker
Baron Hopson created a turnover with his first career forced fumble (
Marcus Patterson with the recovery) to setup kicker
Britton Williams's 35-yard field goal to make it 17-0.
Odom once again aired it out in the first half, finding a streaking
Clayton Coppock for a 55-yard touchdown pass with 8:27 left in the second quarter.
Odom finished 14-of-30 for 219 yards with three touchdown passes and two interceptions.
The Aggies (3-6, 1-5 CUSA) finally broke onto the scoreboard with five minutes to thwart the first-half shutout on a 28-yard rush by Dijon Stanley.
The second half was all about defense for Kennesaw State. The Owls forced their first of two interceptions early in the third quarter when linebacker
Tywon Christopher picked off the first pass of his career as KSU kept them off the scoreboard in the third.
But New Mexico State would hang around, slowly closing the deficit with two, 10-play touchdown drives, climbing to 24-14 with 10:35 left and 24-21 with 5:28 left.
After a tough-luck interception by the Owls, the Aggies were driving again with under 5 minutes to go before
Isaac Paul recorded a clutch interception (the first of his career) in KSU's own territory with 3:37 left on the clock.
Both teams would take swings down the stretch before NM State's 50-yard field goal try with 37 seconds left was wide right to seal the victory for the Owls.
Overall defensively, the Owls lived in the backfield, breaking the program record with a whopping 6.0 sacks on the night and tying the record for tackles for loss with 14.0 overall.
Defensive back
Kody Jones led the way with eight tackles, 4.0 tackles for loss and a sack for the game.
Baron Hopson tied him for team leader with eight tackles, also recording a tackle for loss to accompany his forced fumble.
Also wreaking havoc behind the line of scrimmage was true freshman
Elijah Hill, who finished with four tackles – but 3.0 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. Entering the weekend, Hill ranked second among true freshmen nationally with 5.0 sacks on the year – he now has 6.5 and eight tackles for loss total.
Also recording sacks on the night were
Donovan Westmoreland (1.0),
Juandarion Silas (1.0),
Jaiden Grimes (1.0) and
Tylon Dunlap (0.5).
On the offensive side, helping the Owls amass 423 yards of offense was
Coleman Bennett (86) and
Chase Belcher (81), who both rushed for more than 80 yards on the night
Benyard finished with 74 yards of receiving, while Coppock recorded a career-high 64.
Kennesaw State returns to primetime national television next week when it travels to take on Jax State on Saturday, Nov. 15. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. on ESPNU. A limited number of tickets for Nov. 15 remain to be purchased through KSU by
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