Buies Creek, N.C.-Iain Vance booted a 30-yard field goal with just one second left to lift Georgia State to a 24-21 victory over Campbell Saturday afternoon at Barker-Lane Stadium, giving the Panthers (2-2) a win in their first-ever road game.
Vance's field goal capped a 10-play, 63-yard drive after Campbell (1-3) tied the game with a touchdown with 3:14 to play. GSU quarterback Drew Little completed three passes on the drive, including a 24-yard completion to tight end Arthur Williams to the Campbell 30, and then Rosevelt Watson got the Panthers into field goal range with runs of 15 and six yards down to the 24.
The Panthers ran two plays to run down the clock and get the ball into the middle of the field for Vance, the fifth-year senior from Duluth, Ga., who has not missed this season.
"We've put him under pressure in practice every single day since Aug. 11, 2009, just so that he would be ready for this," said GSU head coach Bill Curry.
Little's eight-yard touchdown pass to Danny Williams had put the Panthers ahead, 21-14, with 6:11 to play after a 13-play, 80-yard drive, but the Camels answered by moving 64 yards on just six plays. Quarterback Daniel Polk accounted for the game-tying score on a seven-yard run.
Little, the redshirt freshman from McDonough, Ga., completed 16 of 23 passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns on the day.
Rashaun Brown rushed for a career-high 133 yards on 19 carries for the Camels , who fell in the final seconds for the second straight game after allowing a touchdown to Davidson with 13 seconds left last week.
"I'm proud of my guys for one thing, which we've shown every day since we got here, and that is resilience," said Curry. "We will fight back every single time. We're 2-2 and we'll take that. Give credit to a very valiant Campbell team."
After a 14-all tie at the half, the Panthers' defense dodged two scoring threats in the second half as Campbell missed a pair of field goals, the second one coming early in the fourth quarter after third-down sack by GSU defensive tackle Christo Bilukidi.
From there, GSU took over at its own 20, and the Panthers moved down the field behind the combination of Little's passing and key runs by Travis Evans, who finished with 53 yards on 11 carries. Little started the drive with a 14-yard completion to Arthur Williams, then hit Parris Lee and Emmanuel Ogbuehi for short gains for a first down at the GSU 45. Then Evans carried three straight times, including a three-yard gain on third-and-two. On first down at the Campbell 44, Little hit Danny Williams for five yards, and then Evans ran 18 yards down to the 21. After an incompletion and a six-yard gain by Evans, Little converted on third down with a five-yard strike to Danny Williams to the 10. On second down, Little again found Williams, this time in the corner of the end zone for an eight-yard scoring pass and a 21-14 lead with 6:11 to go.
On the two fourth-quarter scoring drives, Little was 9-for-10 for 82 yards.
The Panthers won the toss and elected to receive, which proved to be a good decision when Darren McCray took the opening kickoff and raced 94 yards for the score, staking Georgia State to the early, 7-0 lead. Not only was McCray's jaunt a first in Georgia State history, but it was also the first surrendered by the Campbell program in its third year of existence.
Campbell also had an early scoring chance when the Camels recovered a fumbled punt at the GSU 17-yard line. Five plays later, quarterback Daniel Polk punched it in from the one to knot the score at 7-all with 9:47 to play in the first quarter.
Georgia State answered on its first offensive possession with a 10-play, 51-yard drive, capped by Little's five-yard touchdown pass to Sidney Haynes as the Panthers regained the lead, 14-7, with 4:06 left in the first quarter.
The Camels tied the game by grinding out a 13-play, 94-yard drive that lasted nearly eight minutes. Georgia State appeared to have the drive stopped, but a roughing the passer call gave Campbell a key third-down conversion. Polk finished the drive with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Harrison Jordan, knotting the score at 14-all just 1:31 before halftime.
Georgia State returns home next Saturday to host Morehead State at 1 p.m. at the Georgia Dome in the Homecoming game.
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