A Late Safety Lifts Gardner-Webb past Charleston Southern
Take away the safety and this game ends 10-10. Instead Gardner-Webb got two points from a "Team Safety" with 5:56 left in the fourth quarter and held on for a 12-10 win over Charleston Southern. It is not a way to win you see every week.
Neither offense did much early. Tyler Simpson kicked a 19-yard field goal for Gardner-Webb in the second quarter, and Matt Rolader answered from 48 yards with 1:35 left in the half to make it 3-3. Then Hakeem Watters broke a 62-yard touchdown run early in the third and Charleston Southern led 10-3. That was the only touchdown the home side scored all day.
Gardner-Webb got even with 10:57 left, when Cole Pennington found Brian Green Jr. on a 9-yard pass to tie it at 10-10. Then came the safety, and the lead was Gardner-Webb's for good. The scoring list shows nothing after that, so the last two points were the last points.
The box score is lopsided in a way the scoreboard is not. Gardner-Webb outgained Charleston Southern 290 yards to 173, and Charleston Southern passed for just 33 yards, though it did run for 140. Gardner-Webb had 5 sacks, and still gave it away twice (one interception, one lost fumble) to Charleston Southern's none. It is the kind of game you win by outlasting the other guy.
Gardner-Webb moves to 2-2. Charleston Southern is 1-2 and will think about those two points for a while. For fantasy, Watters had the best day of anyone (16.2), and he did it with one run.