Wofford Football Downs The Citadel For 31-16 Victory

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (Wofford Athletics) - The Wofford College football team came away with a 31-16 win over The Citadel on Saturday afternoon at Gibbs Stadium. With the game tied at 7-7 in the second quarter, the Terriers responded with 24 unanswered points on the way to the victory.

Wofford is now 1-6 on the season and 1-3 in the Southern Conference. The Citadel is 1-5 overall and 1-3 in the SoCon. The Terriers were led by Jimmy Weirick with 232 passing yards and three touchdowns, while Kyle Parsons added 72 rushing yards. The Citadel was led by Cooper Wallace with 87 rushing yards and a touchdown.

“I am excited and very happy for these kids,” said interim head coach Shawn Watson. “We have asked them to follow us and to trust us and they did a great job of doing that. I love the heart of this team and they are good people. I couldn’t ask any more of the effort. We played really good complimentary football today and it was fun to see them enjoy the game of football.”

The Bulldogs had the ball first and had one first down before punting. On the first drive for Wofford, they had three first downs, including a 35-yard catch by R.J. Khayo, and then Dylan Djete ran it in for a 13-yard touchdown. Wofford had a 7-0 lead at 9:03 in the first quarter. On the next drive by the Bulldogs, a targeting penalty on Harrison Morgan was followed by two more first downs. David Powers sacked Peyton Derrick on third down and forced a punt.

With the ball back, Wofford had one first down before punting on the final play of the first quarter. On third down, Cooper Wallace went 56-yards up the middle to tie the game at 7-7 with 14:17 on the clock. The Terriers had passing first downs to Jordan Davis and Jacob Ritchie, but had to punt. Wofford’s defense then forced a three-and-out and they took over at midfield. After a first down, the Terriers added a 41-yard field goal by Bridger Jones to take a 10-7 lead with 4:30 left in the half. The Bulldogs had third down and Ahmad Green fumbled, with the ball recovered by Tahir Annoor at the 20-yard line.

On the first play of the ensuing drive, Jimmy Weirick found Devin Mathews for the touchdown and a 17-7 lead with three minutes on the clock. The Bulldogs had a fourth-and-one and the run was stuffed by the Wofford defense at the 36-yard line. Working with the short field, Wofford had a first down run by Nathan Walker and then on third down Jimmy Weirick found a wide-open R.J. Khayo in the endzone for a 24-7 lead with six seconds left in the half.

To open the second half, Wofford had a first down pass to Kyle Watkins and then Jimmy Weirick hit Landon parker in stride for a 56-yard touchdown. Wofford’s lead extended to 31-7 at the 13:18 mark of the third quarter. The Citadel converted a fourth-and-two with a pass completion and then Peyton Derrick ran for a first down to move the ball inside the ten-yard line. On fourth-and-goal from the one, the quarterback keeper didn’t cross the goal line and Wofford took over on downs. The Terriers had one first down before punting. On second down for the Bulldogs, Matthew Clayton intercepted Peyton Derrick at midfield and the Terriers took over. Wofford couldn’t convert the turnover into points and went three-and-out. Ankem Njoku had a 59-yard run to begin the drive and scored with a Ben Brockington 29-yard touchdown reception for a 31-13 score with 8:38 remaining, as the point after was missed.

The on-side kick attempt by The Citadel went out of bounds and Wofford began the ensuing drive on the 41-yard line. The Terriers were unable to gain a first down and punted. With the ball back, the Bulldogs had four first downs, three of which were passing. The drive stalled and they kicked a 28-yard field goal with 1:21 left in the game for a 31-16 score. Another on-side kick attempt went out of bounds and Wofford began at the 42-yard line. The Terriers went three-and-out and punted with 21 seconds remaining. The Bulldogs ran one play to end the game.

Wofford had 349 total yards, with 232 passing yards. The Citadel had 398 total yards, with 246 of those rushing yards. Both teams had 15 first downs. Wofford was 5-of-14 on third down. The Citadel was 5-of-15 on third down and 1-of-3 on fourth down. Wofford was called for nine penalties and The Citadel was called for five in the game. The Bulldogs had a 32:44 to 27:16 time of possession advantage.