FORT VALLEY STATE, Ga.- Coming off of a 20-16 victory over Tuskegee, the Savannah State football team could not keep the momentum going as the Tigers fell to Fort Valley State 30-0 in a game played on Sunday, September 29, 2024 at Wildcat Stadium.
 
The game was originally scheduled to be played on Savannah State campus at Theodore A. Wright Stadium but due to the power outage at SSU and other parts of the Savannah area as result of Hurricane Helene, the contest was played a day later on the FVSU campus stadium.
 
A crowd of 3,691 watched the teams in a first half defensive battle that saw Fort Valley State take a 3-0 lead into intermission, thanks to a 46 yard field goal by Daniel Gibbs as time expired in the second quarter.
 
The Wildcats had 86 yards of offense in the opening half while SSU managed 78.
 
The second half saw Fort Valley State score 27 unanswered points.
 
Savannah State's first possession of the third quarter saw the Tigers move the pigskin from their own 18 to the FVSU seven only to see Shamarcus Poole fumble the ball and have the Wildcats recover.
 
Following that drive, the SSU offense could not get anything going and were held to no yards the rest of the way.
 
While the Savannah State defense forced FVSU to punt five times in eight possessions in the first half, the Wildcat offense wore them down in the second half, scoring four touchdowns in six drives.
 
Brandon Marshall had a pair of touchdown runs for Fort Valley State in the third quarter to expand their lead to 16-0. The Wildcats added two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter to seal their win.
 
Christian Burks threw for 170 yards on 12 of 23 passing with one interception for SSU and Demeke Colbert ran the ball seven times for 11 yards. Da'Shun Mitchell and Brent Carr each had five receptions with Mitchell getting 83 yards and Carr getting 51.
 
Uchenna Nwoha led the SSU defense with nine tackles while Keion Bryant had seven tackles. Marlon Jackson and William Jones had one sack apiece.
 
As a team, Savannah State had 163 yards of offense and were penalized four times for 35 yards. The Wildcats (2-2, 2-1 SIAC) had 436 yards of offense and their defense sacked the SSU quarterbacks eight times.
 
Savannah State (1-3, 1-2 SIAC) will hit the road to play Clark Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia on October 2, 2024 at Panther Stadium for a 2 p.m. kickoff.