East Tennessee State Outlasts West Georgia 35-27
Colton FitzGerald threw for 324 yards and three touchdowns, and West Georgia still went home 0-2. That is the kind of afternoon that makes a quarterback want to lie down. East Tennessee State won it 35-27, and the swing was one throw: FitzGerald's lone interception went the other way for a 25-yard touchdown.
It was a seesaw for a long while. East Tennessee State scored first (Jason Albritton, 6-yard run), West Georgia tied it and then kicked a 46-yard field goal to lead 10-7, and the home team answered with TJ Peyton and Vashawn Nalls touchdowns to go up 21-10 before halftime. West Georgia needed the third quarter to get back in front. FitzGerald hit Josh Schuchts from six yards and T.J. Lockley from nine, and it was 24-21 with 5:15 left in the quarter.
Then came the swing. Mike Jenkins picked off FitzGerald and took it 25 yards to the house with 31 seconds left in the third, and East Tennessee State led 28-24 going into the fourth. The game had four lead changes and one tie, and that pick-six was the last of the lead changes. Brandon Winton sealed it with an 88-yard touchdown from Mason Mims with 6:10 to go (two catches, 96 yards, so he made the most of the targets). Logan Lopez's 29-yard field goal at 3:37 was all West Georgia got back.
The stat sheet tells a stranger story than the scoreboard. West Georgia had 411 total yards to 378 for East Tennessee State, 347 of them through the air. The home team ran it 40 times for 180 yards and threw for only 198. West Georgia ran 27 times for 64. One team had a ground game and the other had an arm, and the one with the ground game won.
East Tennessee State is 1-1 now. West Georgia is 0-2, and you cannot blame the quarterback's numbers. For fantasy, FitzGerald was the top scorer of the day at 33.6 points, which will not be a comfort to him.