Samford Football Wrecks Wofford, 31-10

Saturday, October 7

Spartanburg, SC

12:30 PM

Samford University

3-3 , 2-2

Wofford

0-6 , 0-3

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Samford	7	17	7	0	31
Wofford	0	3	0	7	10

10.7.23 | Football

Box Score

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – On a breezy Saturday afternoon in the South Carolina Upstate, the Samford football team toppled the Wofford Terriers in a 31-10 contest at Gibbs Stadium.

With the victory, Samford moves to 3-3 on the season and 2-2 in Southern Conference play. The win also marks the ninth-straight Bulldog win over the Terriers and extends the in-season to two games. Wofford drops to 0-6 and 0-3 in league games.

The Bulldogs employed a balanced offensive attack to terrorize the Terrier defense as Samford outgained Wofford 457-251 with 252 yards coming through the air and 205 more on the ground.

In the passing game, Michael Hiers polished off the victory with 239 yards on 30-of-42 passing with a touchdown and an interception. Qadir Ismail got in on the action with a reverse throwback to Quincy Crittendon that went for 13 yards to set up a score.

On the ground, Jay Stanton hauled the mail for 104 yards on 19 carries and a pair of touchdowns. Saturday marked the first time in Stanton's career that the senior has had back-to-back games of over 100 yards rushing.

Damonta Witherspoon enjoyed his best game in a Samford uniform as the junior added 95 more yards and a score to Stanton. Overall, Samford's 205 yards on the ground are the most in a game since the Bulldogs rushed for 252 yards against The Citadel in 2021.

On a Saturday afternoon that saw 12 different Bulldogs catch a pass, the elder statesmen of Chandler Smith and Ty King paced the Samford receivers.

Smith hauled in seven passes for 70 yards including a game-high 25-yard reception. King added 44 more yards of his own on four catches. Freshman Brendon Jenkins was on the receiving end of Hiers' lone touchdown of the day.

To round out the offense, Wilson Beaverstock connected on all four PATs and nailed a 25-yard field goal to open the second quarter.

Defensively, the tandem of Devin Smith and Wade White each had 11 tackles on the afternoon. To go along with his career-high 11 stops, Smith also had two tackles for loss and a pair of pass breakups.

Noah Martin, the SoCon's TFL leader, tallied eight tackles on the day, a sack and a blocked field goal in the whomping of Wofford. Xavier Nurse collected his first interception of the season to put an exclamation mark on the Bulldog's defensive performance.

After both teams were held scoreless for the majority of the opening stanza, Stanton found paydirt with a one-yard plunge into the end zone to open the scoring and put Samford up 7-0.

On the opening play of the second quarter, Beaverstock connected on his 25-yarder to extend to Bulldog lead to 10-0. Following a Wofford field goal, Hiers found Jenkins in the back of the end zone for a score before engineering a drive that was capped off by a Stanton nine-yard touchdown scamper to make it a 24-3 game at halftime.

The final Samford touchdown came in the third quarter when Witherspoon's day culminated with a one-yard plunge to push the score to 31-3.

Wofford tagged on a late touchdown in the fourth quarter for the 31-10 final

Samford returns to Seibert Stadium on October 14 as the Bulldogs are set to host co-preseason favorite Furman. Kickoff is slated for noon and tickets can be found here.

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