GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Bo Moore passed for 221 yards and two touchdowns to lead NCAA I-AA eighth-ranked Furman to a 24-7 Southern Conference win over Elon in front of 9,174 fans at Paladin Stadium Saturday evening.
The game marked the Southern Conference’s debut for Elon (0-1, 0-1 SoCon), the league’s newest member, and the earliest conference clash for Furman (1-0, 1-0 SoCon) since 1974.
Making his first collegiate start, Moore, a junior from Madison, Ga., completed 15-of-26 passes and added 19 yards rushing in helping the Paladins to the 17th conference home win in their last 18 games. His touchdown passes covered 41 yards to Brian Bratton and 33 yards to Brian Stone.
“We
knew it was going to be a battle playing a Southern Conference game right out
of the gate,” said Furman head coach Bobby Lamb. “We handled Elon
pretty well the last two years, but we knew they would come in here fighting,
and they did. It was battle, but we’re very happy right now.”“We came down here to win a ball game, and obviously we didn’t get that done,” said Elon head coach Al Seagraves. “We made some improvements from last year, and our kids really battled. We’ll learn some things from this game, and we’ll become a good football team."
Furman rolled up 463 yards in total offense to Elon’s 263 and limited the Phoenix to only 56 yards and one first down in the second half.
Furman scored on its second possession of the contest, covering 68 yards on four plays highlighted by Moore’s 41-yard strike to Bratton to give the Paladins a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter.
Elon knotted the game at 7-7 with a 10-play, 66-yard march that culminated with a 32-yard burst up the middle by freshman fullback Chad Nkang at the 10:17 mark of the second period.
The Paladins regained the lead on the last play of the first half when senior Danny Marshall drilled a 41-yard field goal to make it 10-7, capping an efficient 42-yard, seven-play drive that consumed the half’s final 43 seconds.
