September 06, 2008
BRYANT FOOTBALL DEFEATS SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT 39-36
BEHIND CAREER-HIGH 221 YARDS FROM JERELL SMITH
BOX SCORE
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| Junior Jerell Smith rushed for a career-best 221 yards in
Saturday's win over Southern Connecticut. www.dspics.com
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SMITHFIELD, R.I. (9/6/08) - Junior running back Jerell Smith
rushed for a career-high 221 yards on 34 carries to help lead
Bryant University to a 39-36 non-conference win over Southern
Connecticut before 2,417 at Bulldog Stadium Saturday
afternoon. The win improves Bryant's record to 1-1 on the
season heading into next week's home game with Merrimack College (1
p.m.). Southern Connecticut drops to 1-1 on the season.
In the first matchup between the two schools since last year's
NCAA playoffs, won by the Owls 45-28, the Bulldogs capitalized on
several Southern Connecticut mistakes to pull out the fourth
quarter, come-from-behind victory.
"If we don't keep the ball in the shoot, they are going to run
away from us, and that's what happened today," said Bryant coach
Marty Fine.
Southern Connecticut (1-1), ranked 20th in Division
II and picked to win the Northeast-10 Conference this season, got a
strong passing effort from quarterback Steve Armstrong. The
senior signal caller was 17 for 23 passing for 282 yards and threw
three touchdowns before leaving the game with an injury early in
the third.
Armstrong's replacement Kevin Lynch came on to throw a pair of
touchdowns, including a 75-yarder to Ty Marshall to vive the Owls a
28-21 lead with 3:30 left in the third.
But in the fourth quarter, key plays by the Bryant defense and
special teams and the hard running of Smith, helped Bryant
rally. A Samad Wagstaff interception near midfield as the
quarter came to a close resulted in a Smith 10-yard touchdown. On
the ensuing kickoff, Southern fumbled the return and Bryant's
Franck Tebou was there to recover. That play led to another
Smith touchdown, making it 33-28 with 13:17 left.
Another fumble on the kickoff by the Owls gave the ball back to
the Bulldogs and this time Mike Canfora was there to bull his way
in from the 1-yard line to put Bryant on top 39-28.
Lynch and the Owls were done, as the freshman connected with
Pete Digangi for a 6-yard score to pull to within 39-36 with 7:53
remaining.
Bryant was forced to punt after the drive stalled out at their
own 34 yard line, but on Southern's next possession, linebacker
Paul Polomski picked off a Lynch pass at the 45 yard line and the
Bulldogs were able to run out the clock.
Smith's 221 yards are a career-high for the Howard University
transfer and the seventh-most yards in a game, tying him with
Lorenzo Perry who had 221 at Assumption in 2008.
Quarterback Jay Graber completed 13 of 25 passes for 164 yards
and two touchdowns while Vinton South caught three passes for 64
yards.
"Southern Connecticut is a good team and they deserve all of
their credit," said Jay Graber. "They beat us pretty bad last
year so it wasn't a Division I, Division II thing, it was a good
football game."
Ty Marshall had seven catches for 203 yards and two scores for
Southern Connecticut . Jarom Freeman, who rushed for an NCAA
Division II record 418 yards against the Bulldogs last year, was
held in check by the Bulldog defense. The junior finished
with 70 yards on 16 carries in the game.
Bryce Martins had 11 tackles on the season while Andre White
added seven.
Bryant will host former Northeast-10 Conference rival Merrimack
College next Saturday for Homecoming & Reunion Weekend.
Kick-off at Bulldog Stadium is 1 p.m. The game will be
carried live on WOON-AM 1240.
