Wofford Holds Off Gardner-Webb 17-13 on a Kickoff Return
Take away the 97-yard kickoff return and Gardner-Webb wins this game 13-10. Wofford scored on the opening kickoff, with Ivory Aikens taking it the distance at 14:49 of the first quarter, and it held on for a 17-13 win it had no real business winning on the stat sheet.
The stat sheet is lopsided. Gardner-Webb finished with 438 total yards to Wofford's 210, and Cole Pennington threw for 378 of them. But Pennington also threw an interception, the Runnin' Bulldogs lost two fumbles, and 54 attempts produced zero passing touchdowns. The only touchdown they scored was a 6-yard run by Randy Young at 4:47 of the third quarter.
Wofford never trailed. After Andrew Bontekoe's 25-yard field goal made it 7-3, Gerald Modest Jr. ran in from 9 yards with 2:37 left in the second quarter for a 14-3 lead. Young's score cut it to 14-10, Sam Spence kicked a 32-yard field goal with 11:07 left in the fourth to push it to 17-10, and Tyler Simpson answered with a 33-yarder at 5:37 that made the final 17-13.
That was the last score. Wofford is 2-0 and Gardner-Webb is 0-2, and both results came with a lot of yards and not many points. Wofford, to be fair, gave it away twice itself (an interception and a lost fumble) and was outgained by 228 yards.
For fantasy, the best scorer of the day was a Gardner-Webb receiver, Kory Jones, with 135 yards and no touchdown. That tells you how few touchdowns there were to go around.