ATLANTA - Georgia State suffered its first loss of the season with a 40-17 home defeat to Old Dominion on Saturday at the Georgia Dome. It was the Panthers' (1-1) first match-up against a full-fledged member of the Colonial Athletic Association, as the third-year Old Dominion (2-0) program is in its first season of conference play.
The Panthers were shut out in the second half of the game, as Old Dominion extended its 27-17 halftime lead with two touchdown runs by quarterback Thomas DeMarco.
The game was also the Panthers' first ever against a repeat opponent; GSU dropped a 34-20 contest to Old Dominion last season in Norfolk, Va. With that game, ODU began a winning streak that it extended today to seven games.
"I would love to play a good game against ODU someday but we seem to save our worst for ODU," said Georgia State head coach Bill Curry. "So hats off to a good job by [Old Dominion]. We didn't find out today just how good they are because we really didn't test them. We gave them opportunities at every turn and they took advantage."
Quarterback Bo Schlechter, starting his second game for the Panthers, was 10-of-27 passing with an interception. Drew Little got his first snaps of the season late in the third quarter and finished 6-of-17 passing with two picks.
"We went out and played hard, but we had a couple of penalties and turnovers that shouldn't have happened," Schlechter said. "That caused us to get off key and we never could get back into it. We didn't execute our game plan like we should have."
A wild first half featured numerous miscues on both sides that led to points.
Old Dominion started the game with 51- and 45-yard field goals from Jarod Brown to jump out to a 6-0 lead. The Panthers' first score was made possible by an Antonio Vaughan fair catch fumble on a punt by Matt Hubbard. Nate Anthony subsequently recovered on the ODU 14 for the Panthers, and Christian Benvenuto ended the short drive with a 26-yard field goal to make it a 6-3 Old Dominion lead nine minutes into the game.
Later in the first quarter with Old Dominion leading 13-3, ODU safety Devon Simmons intercepted Schlechter and returned the pick 33 yards to the GSU 13. But several plays later, GSU linebacker Michael Hall forced Colby Goodwyn to fumble into the end zone, and linebacker Demazio Skelton returned it 93 yards to the Monarchs 7-yard line. Two plays later Donald Russell scored on a 2-yard run with 29 seconds left in the period to cut the ODU lead to three.
The Panthers, however, committed two special teams errors of their own in the second quarter. A Hubbard punt attempt was blocked by Alex Arain and returned 36 yards by Blair Roberts for an ODU touchdown with 12:16 left in the half.
A GSU scoring drive of 55 yards, capped by a 5-yard Travis Evans touchdown run, cut Old Dominion's lead to 20-17, but the Monarchs partially blocked another punt on the next Panthers possession, getting the ball at the GSU 19. ODU struck quickly with a DeMarco touchdown pass to Reid Evans to end the first-half scoring.
Georgia State was looking to cut into a 33-17 ODU lead when its most promising drive of the second half was cut short. Early in the fourth quarter, Little's pass attempt was tipped at the line and intercepted by Monarchs cornerback Eriq Lewis at the ODU 12-yard line.
Albert Wilson accounted for 77 punt return yards on six attempts and tied with Jordan Giles for the team lead with 53 yards receiving. Evans paced the Panthers with 74 yards on the ground.
Old Dominion (2-0), the Panthers' future CAA rival when GSU gains full football membership next season, enters conference play on Saturday, Sept. 24 at Delaware.
Georgia State travels to Jacksonville State next Saturday, Sept. 17 at 3:30 p.m.
