No. 20 Football Earns SoCon Road Win At VMI, 26-7

Saturday, October 7

Lexington, Va.

12:30 PM (CT)

Samford University

4-2 , 2-1

VMI (ESPN3)

0-6 , 0-3

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Samford	10	10	3	3	26
VMI	7	0	0	0	7

Moise Satine rushed for a career-high 97 yards Saturday at VMI.

No. 20 Football Earns SoCon Road Win At VMI, 26-7

10.7.17 | Football

Box Score

BOX SCORE

LEXINGTON, Va. – The 20^th-ranked Samford football picked up its first road win of the 2017 season with a 26-7 Southern Conference victory at VMI Saturday afternoon at Foster Stadium.

"I knew all week this was going to be one of those grind-it-out kind of games," Samford head coach Chris Hatcher said. "They're very well coached, I have great respect for their staff. Anytime you can win on the road, it's a big deal. I'm proud of our guys."

In the game for Samford, quarterback Devlin Hodges completed 26-of-38 passes for 262 yards and one touchdown. With his performance Hodges became Samford's career leader in passing yards. Hodges has now passed for 8,204 yards in his Samford career, breaking the old record of 7,950, set by Ray Nelson from 2001 to 2004.

Kelvin McKnight led all receivers with eight catches for 70 yards in the game. TaDarryl Marshall had three catches for 54 yards, while Andrew Harris caught two passes for 50 yards and a touchdown. Moise Satine led the running game with 14 carries for a career-high 97 yards and a touchdown.

The Samford defense was led by Deion Pierre with 11 tackles, including five solo stops. Darius Harvey, William Bryant and Koi Freeman had an interception each in the win. On special teams, Austin Barnard averaged 52.6 yards on five punts. Jordan Weaver made a career-high four field goals for Samford, making kicks of 22, 31, 40 and 21 yards in the win.

For VMI, Duncan Hodges, the younger brother of Samford's quarterback, Devlin Hodges, completed 16-of-31 passes for 121 yards and three interceptions. Ryan Francis led the VMI defense with 15 tackles, including seven solo stops.

VMI got on the scoreboard first, scoring a touchdown on the opening drive of the game. Duncan Hodges scored on a three-yard run to give the Keydets an early 7-0 lead with 10:37 left in the first quarter. Samford answered quickly with Satine running for a 33-yard touchdown to knot the score at 7-7 with 9:40 to go in the opening period.

Samford took the lead for good late in the first quarter. Weaver kicked the first of his four field goals, this one from 22-yards out to give the Bulldogs a 10-7 lead with 3:51 left in the first quarter.

Devlin Hodges connected with Harris for a 23-yard touchdown to make the score 17-7 with 4:42 left in the second quarter. Weaver kicked a 31-yard field goal to push the lead to 20-7 with two seconds to go before halftime.

The only scoring in the second half came on two Weaver field goals. He kicked one from 40-yard out with 2:52 left in the third quarter, and another from 21-yards out with 6:49 remaining in the game to make the final score 26-7.

With the win, Samford improves to 4-2 overall and 2-1 in Southern Conference play. VMI falls to 0-6 overall and 0-3 in league play.

Samford will take the next week off from competition. The Bulldogs will return to action on Saturday, Oct. 21, when the team plays at Wofford at 12:30 p.m. (CT).