CCU holds off Presbyterian for narrow win

After averaging 50.3 points in its last three meetings with Presbyterian, Coastal Carolina didn’t manage a traditional offensive touchdown until the fourth quarter Saturday.

But the Chanticleers got what they needed nonetheless.

Junior kicker Ryan Granger rushed for a touchdown on a fake field goal and kicked three field goals and the defense forced a safety and held firm in the end to help the No. 1/2-ranked Chants overcome their offensive struggles and an hour and 45-minute lightning delay on the way to a 24-17 win at Brooks Stadium.

“Every game is different. The rain delay, not trying to make excuses, but it was just a crazy situation,” senior defensive end Roderick Holder said, summing up the day. “Every circumstance that happens in a game, you just have to be ready for it and make the adjustment and play the best you can. Yeah, we probably wished we handled it a lot better than what we did, but at the end of the day we did our job, we finished the game and we got the most important thing – which is a W.”

Coastal Carolina (6-0, 1-0 Big South) has now won eight straight meetings with Presbyterian (1-5, 0-1), but this one was not like the previous three clashes during the Joe Moglia era.

After winning those last three meetings with the Blue Hose by an average margin of 34.4 points, the Chants were challenged to the very end Saturday in the teams’ Big South opener.

Just when it looked like Coastal Carolina had finally taken control of the game with an 11-play, 73 yard scoring drive early in the fourth quarter – going up 24-10 on a 5-yard touchdown run by junior De’Angelo Henderson – the Blue Hose answered right back.

Presbyterian launched an 8-play, 82 yard touchdown drive in 3 minutes, 46 seconds to make it a 24-17 game with 6:04 remaining.

And after stuffing sophomore running back Osharmar Abercrombie on fourth-and-1 on the ensuing Coastal Carolina series, the Blue Hose got the ball back at their own 40 with 2:49 remaining and a chance to tie. They drove all the way to the Chants’ 10, but the defense bent no further, shutting the visitors down over the next four plays to preserve the win.

“They came up with a couple big plays on us, they converted a [key] fourth down, I’ve got to look at the film, but I was pleased in general with the way the defense played,” Moglia said. “And when we needed to come up with a couple big plays in the fourth quarter, we came up with a couple big plays in the fourth quarter.”

Overall, Henderson finished with 124 rushing yards and tied an FCS record by scoring a touchdown in 20 straight games, Ross ended up 16-of-30 passing for 201 yards and one interception and junior Bruce Mapp tallied seven catches for a career-best 129 yards.

But it was not the kind of offensive performance fans have come to expect from the Chants.

By the time the game finally started after the lightning left the area, only a small portion of the announced paid attendance of 8,039 had returned to the stadium, and the team’s usual offensive rhythm seemed to be missing as well.

Ross was sacked and lost a fumble on the opening possession, and Coastal Carolina punted on its next two series before Presbyterian took an early 3-0 lead on a 34-yard Brett Norton field goal.

Ross then hit Mapp in stride for a 57-yard completion to start the ensuing drive, but the hosts stalled at the 4. Lining up for a field goal on the first play of the second quarter, Coastal Carolina caught the Blue Hose off guard when sophomore holder Tyler Keane took off with the ball and tossed an option pitch to Granger for a much-needed touchdown.

“We practice it pretty much every single day, either with the field goal unit or with ourselves as kickers,” Granger said. “We practice it every single day, multiple times a day just to make sure we get the timing right, get the pitch right, and I think it worked for us.”

And the Chants could not have known then just how much they would need to rely on their kicker in this game.

They failed on the two-point conversion try after his touchdown, but Granger added field goals of 38 and 47 yards later in the quarter to send the hosts into halftime up 12-3.

Coastal Carolina continued to grind out points after halftime, pinning Presbyterian deep in its own territory early in the third quarter and to eventually collect a safety as the Blue Hose sent a bad snap through the back of the end zone while trying to punt.

After Presbyterian later scored its first touchdown on a 30-yard run by Darrell Bridges to make it a 14-10 game midway through the third quarter, Granger connected on his third field goal of the day, from 22 yards, for a 17-10 lead when the Chants again stalled in the red zone.

“I think you’ve got to give PC and Harold Nichols and their staff an awful lot of credit. They did a great job on defense shutting down our offense,” Moglia said. “There were certainly some mistakes we made that we could have been better with, but you have to give them some real credit for that.”

Finally, in the fourth quarter, the Coastal Carolina offense broke through.

The Chants converted three times on third down and got a 30-yard run by Abercrombie to help set up Henderson’s 5-yard touchdown that made it 24-10 with 9:56 remaining.

The Blue Hose answered right back, though, with that 82-yard drive and a 1-yard touchdown run by quarterback Kaleb Griffin to cut their deficit in half, and they then stuffed Abercrombie on a fourth-and-1 carry to take over at their own 39 with 2:49 remaining.

The suspense mounted further as Griffin connected on a 26-yard completion to Tre’von Howell down to the Coastal Carolina 9 to set up a first-and-goal situation with plenty of time left, but the Chants’ defense ended the upset bid right there.

Coastal Carolina stuffed Bridges, who finished with a career-high 186 rushing yards, on second down and then forced two final incompletions from Griffin – a surprise choice at starting quarterback who was seeing his first action of the season – to seal the win.

“They were doing a lot of things on offense that we just didn’t see on film. They had a lot of different adjustments we weren’t used to, but at the end of the day we [stopped them] and I’m proud of my defense,” Holder said. “We obviously have some work to do, but it was a good stand.”

Said Ross: “It was great to watch the defense do what they did out there.”

After averaging 582 offensive yards in their last three meetings with Presbyterian, the Chants finished with 409 on Saturday and afterward Henderson echoed his coach’s sentiments in complimenting the Blue Hose’s approach.

“We weren’t surprised. We know they’re a very good team,” he said. “I don’t think they get enough credit for the type of scheme that they run on defense because they’re athletes, they’re phenomenal with their gap fits, they’re sound. They’ve got some good athletes. They’re underrated, I would say.”

The Chants, meanwhile, are nonetheless right where they want to be at 6-0 heading into their bye week.

And it seems it really couldn’t be coming at a better time.

“I’m glad we’re at the break, I’m glad we won, I’m glad we’re 6-0,” Moglia said. “I know we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

This story was originally published October 10, 2015 at 7:00 PM with the headline "CCU holds off Presbyterian for narrow win."