Samford holds off Mercer

MACON, Ga. — Devlin Hodges threw a pair of touchdown passes to Chris Shelling and the Samford recorded a pair of second-half safeties as the Bulldogs handled Mercer 20-3 on Saturday.

Hodges, the Southern Conference offensive player of the month for October, threw a six-yard strike to Shelling with :33 left in the first half to give Samford a 10-3 halftime lead, then padded it with a 16-yard toss midway through the third quarter.

On second down at its own 10-yard line, Mercer was caught for a 10-yard loss for the first safety. On third-and-9 from his own 9, Kaelan Riley was sacked by Brett Granger with 2:37 left to complete the scoring.

Hodges completed 36 of 49 passes for 367 yards and two touchdowns to lead Samford (6-3, 4-2).

Mercer (4-3, 3-4) managed just 184 yards of offense.

› Western Carolina 31, The Citadel 19

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Detrez Newsome raced 81 yards for a tie-breaking touchdown and Western Carolina survived three blocked punts to defeat The Citadel.

Tyrie Adams passed for 133 yards and three touchdowns for the Catamounts (7-3, 5-2), two to Terryon Robinson. Newsome gained 197 yards on 24 carries. It’s his second straight 100-yard game since returning from injury.

The Citadel (5-4, 3-4) opened the second half with a Dominique Allen 26-yard touchdown run to pull the Bulldogs into a 17-17 tie after just three plays. It was the third time The Citadel had fought into a tie, but managed only a safety thereafter. The Bulldogs turned the ball over five times, twice losing fumbles.

› ETSU 24,

VMI 6

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — Falon Lee carried 29 times for 93 yards with a late third-quarter touchdown and East Tennessee beat winless VMI.

Lee’s 1-yard plunge with 43 seconds left in the third culminated an 11-play, 66-yard drive and gave ETSU (4-5, 2-4) a 17-6 lead. Jajuan Stinson added a 2-yard touchdown run following another long drive with just over 12 minutes left in the game.

ETSU built a 10-0 lead after the first quarter on JJ Jerman’s 33-yard field goal and Nasir Player’s 4-yard interception return for a score.

VMI (0-10, 0-7) took advantage of a short field on consecutive series bookending halftime — on a fumble and turnover on downs — to pick up a pair of field goals by Grant Clemons and trim the deficit to 10-6. The Keydets were held to 121 total yards.