Racers Show Grit at Georgia

Box Score The Murray State football team left it on all the field Saturday as they faced a seemingly insurmountable task by taking on third-ranked Georgia at Sanford Stadium in Athens. Despite being tied with the third-ranked Bulldogs, 7-7, after one quarter of play, the Bulldogs eventually proved to be too much for the Racers, topping Murray State, 63-17.

After the Bulldogs scored on their opening drive, the Racers were able to stop them on their next one and get the ball back. On the ensuing MSU possession, Preston Rice found DaQuon Green for a 60-yard touchdown to tie the game at seven with 6:32 to play, after the Gabriel Vicente extra point.

Murray State had a chance to take the lead later in the quarter when Cam Petty popped the ball loose from Georgia’s Eli Wolff allowing Nigel Walton to pick it up and return it eight yards. However, from that point the Bulldogs proved why they are one of the best teams in the FBS by scoring 35 unanswered points.

However, despite being down 42-7 in the third, the Racers would not give up as Walton picked off Stetson Bennett and took it to the house for MSU’s first pick-six of the season. In the end though, it would be too little too late, as Georgia closed out the Racers, 63-17.

Rice finished his day an impressive 20-for-25 for 216 yards with no interceptions and a touchdown including longs of 50 and 60 yards. Green was also impressive Saturday, finishing with five catches for 101 yards and a score.

Dior Johnson led the Racer defense on the afternoon with eight tackles including six solo and one for-loss, while Walton finished with three tackles, an interception, a touchdown and a fumble recovery. On special teams, Steve Dawson had seven punts for 45.6 yards a punt with three going 50-yards are more, while Gabriel Vicente was 1-for-2 on field goal attempts.