CONWAY – Osharmar Abercrombie rushed for over 100 yards and Malcolm Williams had over 100 yards receiving to lead Coastal Carolina to 28-17 victory over Georgia Southern in the teams’ 2017 season finale at Brooks Stadium.
The Chanticleers end their first season as an NCAA FBS with consecutive wins and a 3-9 record overall, 2-6 in the Sun Belt. Coastal also snapped Georgia Southern’s two-game win streak and the Eagle finish with a 2-10 mark, 2-6 in the Sun Belt.
Abercrombie, playing his final game as a Chanticleer, finished with 133 yards, his third time going over 100 this season and fourth for his career, and 1,932 yards to move past Eric O’Neal for fifth on the CCU all-time list, trailing only De’Angelo Henderson, Aundres Perkins, Patrick Hall and Lorenzo Taliaferro.
Williams posted his second 100-yard receiving game of the season, hauling in four passes for 120 yards and two scores. With his effort, he ends 2017 with 793 receiving yards, fifth-most receiving yards in a single season (MATT HAZEL CURRENTLY 4th on CCU SEASON LIST WITH 799 in 2012).
CCU quarterback Kilton Anderson completed 9-of-17 passes for a season-high 180 yards and two scores, one for 67 yards and one for 37 – both to Williams.
Defensively for the Chants, senior Shane Johnson had 13 tackles to become just the fifth Chant with at least 100 tackles in a season despite him missing two-plus games this year due to injury.
Coastal took the opening kickoff and needed just two plays to take a 7-0 lead. After an eight-yard run by Abercrombie, Anderson hit Williams down the middle of the field for a 67-yard touchdown pass.
After Coastal missed a 48-yard field goal on its second drive, Georgia Southern got a 28-yard run by L.A. Ramsby. Later in the drive, Coastal’s Jalin Walker made a key tackle for loss on a third down and Tyler Bass came on to make a 48-yard field goal to make the score 7-3 with 4:41 left in the first quarter.
On the ensuing kickoff, Anderson has completions of 15 yards to Marcus Outlow and 28 yards to Ky’Jon Tyler, the second giving CCU first-and-goal on the Eagle three yards line. Between the completions, Dalton Demos had a 12-yard run. Abercrombie capped the drive with a one-yard plunge on third down and Evan Rabon’s point after gave Coastal a 14-3 lead on the first play of the second quarter.
Two drives later and one play after a CCU punt, Coastal’s C.J. Brewer forced a fumble that Myles White recovered on the Georgia Southern 28. However, the Eagle defense stood strong and forced a turnover on downs.
Georgia Southern rode that momentum to put together a 16-play, 74-yards scoring drive that ended with a one-yard TD run by Ramsby. The point after cut the CCU advantage to four, 14-10, with 1:53 left before halftime.
The Eagles opened the second half with a 47-yard kickoff return and eventually scored on an eight-yard Shai Werts to Ellis Richardson TD pass to give Georgia Southern its first and only lead, 17-14.
Coastal looked to have been stopped on the ensuing drive, but the Chanticleers executed a fake punt on fourth-and-four on the CCU 43 thanks to a 19-yard Abercrombie rush. Two plays later, Anderson hooked up with Williams for a 37-yard TD and the Chants regained the lead, 21-17.
The Chants pushed their lead to 11, 28-17, wth1:23 left in the third quarter. Abercrombie accounted for all the yards, rushing four times for 68 yards including runs of 14, 12, 41 and one.
With his effort, Abercrombie eclipsed the 100-yard barrier and, with Williams adding at least 100 receiving yards, gave Coastal its first 100-yard rusher and 100-yard receiver in the same game since De’Angelo Henderson (101) and Bruce Mapp (120) accomplished the feat versus The Citadel in the 2015 NCAA FCS playoffs.
Today was the final game for 18 seniors, including Osharmar Abercrombie, Gary Bradshaw, Laquay Brown, Nicholas Clark, Eric Church, Lorenzo D’Angelo, Dalton Demos, Dontay Hears, Masamitsu Ishibashi, Kerron Johnson, Shane Johnson, Chris Jones, Dallen Jones, Tyler Keane, Rodney Mitchell, Dwayne Price, Marcus Williamson and Austin Wilson.
Courtesy: CCU Athletics
