Goodwyn helps ODU rush past its mistakes and win

By Jeff Haws

ATLANTA

Old Dominion made enough early mistakes to lose, but sophomore Colby Goodwyn's career-high 190 rushing yards and some aggressive defense finally allowed the Monarchs to win going away 40-17.

Two turnovers that led to 10 Panthers points and some key penalties helped keep Georgia State in the game long after it seemed like Old Dominion had control.

When the Panthers put together a 55-yard touchdown drive halfway through the second quarter to close to 20-17 with 6 minutes left in the half, it seemed like the Monarchs (2-0) might be in for a ball game.

They may have looked like the better team, but their key errors were allowing Georgia State (1-1) to hang around in hopes of an upset.

"There's no question that the turnovers really hurt us early on," ODU coach Bobby Wilder said. "I did feel like we should have been up by a few more scores at 20-17. But you look at last year's game; they're up 6-0, turned the ball over four times and we're up 34-6. We hung in there with it, and our motto as a team is to play the next play and not get too down when something bad happens."

And it was about that time that bad things stopped happening for the Monarchs.

When Georgia State got the ball back 2:16 later with a chance to take its first lead, the ODU defense forced a three-and-out, followed by Paul Morant's partial block of Matt Hubbard's punt. That set the Monarchs up at the Panthers' 19-yard line.

Three plays later, Reid Evans caught an 8-yard touchdown pass. The lead was back to 10, and the Panthers would never score again.

One of the big keys to the defensive improvement was getting pressure up front. The ODU line got three sacks in the second half after recording just one in the first, repeatedly pushing the Panthers back whenever they seemed to be gaining some ground.

Wilder said that was a result of his team getting a better feel for what Georgia State was trying to do on offense and taking advantage of what they saw.

"Once we got a little better handle on their three-step game... we got them into more second- and third-and-long and got them into more of a five-step game," Wilder said. "And when that happened, our front four is very good... and we were getting in the backfield a little bit more.

"When they became predictable, we were in a position where we could pin our ears back on defense and let the front four go."

Meanwhile, the Monarchs' offense found its footing on the legs of Goodwyn, who had career highs in rushing yards and carries (26). Last year's kickoff return specialist - who set the Division I record for kickoff return yardage in a game with 333 vs. Cal Poly - was all of a sudden the focal point of the offense.

He said he was ready to be just that, and it paid off for ODU, which hit the 40-point mark for the second straight week, following last Saturday's 41-14 victory over Campbell at Foreman Field.

"My main focus was to come out and try to establish the running game more because the thought was about we weren't tough up front," said Goodwyn, who also added a touchdown. "That shows how good we are up front. I feel I just came in focused to bring it hard, gain tough yards."

The only time things got interesting for ODU in the second half was following a missed extra point - leaving Georgia State with a two- instead of three-score deficit. And that became more interesting when the Panthers subsequently got a long punt return to start at the ODU 33.

Three plays later, the Panthers were set up with a first down at the 15, just seconds into the third quarter. But, on second down, a tipped Drew Little pass was picked off by Eriq Lewis, and Georgia State's last serious scoring threat was done.

Monarchs quarterback Thomas DeMarco finished 12 of 20 for 127 yards, two rushing touchdowns and one passing. After a big game last week against Campbell, redshirt freshman receiver Antonio Vaughan was quieter with four catches for 35 yards.

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