SAVANNAH, Ga.- In football, the team who makes the fewest mistakes often wins.

That was certainly the case on Saturday night in Edward Waters' 41-14 victory over Savannah State. It was the season and Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener for both teams.

Early on, it looked liked Savannah State would runaway with a easy win.

The crowd of 3,780 at Theodore A. Wright Stadium saw the hometown Tigers score 14 points off of a pair of Edward Waters turnovers.

A fumble recovery by John "Wesley" Bentley at the SSU 36 led to a 30 yard touchdown run by Joseph Hampton with 10:52 left in the first quarter. 

Another SSU fumble recover, this time by linebacker Uchenna Nowha at the Edward Waters 12, resulted in a 12 yard scamper by David Gardner Jr. with 8:34 remaining in the opening quarter. Jimmy Tran named both extra points for a 14 point cushion.

The rains held off but the bottom began to fall out for Savannah State as the visitors from Jacksonville, Florida exploded for 41 unanswered points.

It started with EWU's Kieren Jackson returning the ensuring kickoff yards for a touchdown to slice SSU's lead in half to 14-7.

Following that special teams breakdown, SSU had a fumble by wide receiver Braylon Flowers, a interception and a fumble by quarterback Christian Burks and a fumble by Hampton which led to three touchdowns and a field goal by Edward Waters to send them into intermission with a 31-14 lead.

In the third quarter, SSU's offense was on the field for less than four minutes and only ran six plays for no yards.

Savannah State drove inside the EWU red zone twice in the fourth quarter but came away empty both times, losing the ball on downs.

The SSU defense limited Edward Waters to a touchdown in the third quarter and a field  goal in the final quarter.

As a team, the Tigers offense produced 236 yards with 99 coming on the ground.

Hampton had 56 yards and a touchdown on ten carries while Gardner added 22 yards and a touchdown on his six carries. Burks, who earned the start at quarterback, completed 12 of 21 passes for 231 yards while junior college transfer Fabian Walker played some in the second half and ended the game with five yards on two of four passing.

Cinsere Clark had four receptions for 22 yards while former quarterback Jadon Adams and Fowler both hauled in three receptions. Adams had 44 yards and Fowler had 25 yards. Elijah Stephens caught a pair of passes for 35 yards.

Linebacker Darrian Bell had a game-high 11 tackles while James Shellman IV and Tavare Brewton both had seven stops apiece. Bell and Bentley both forced fumbles and Christopher Murray had two pass breakups.

Lucas Edenfield punted five times for an average of 34.4 yards and had a long of 42 yards.

Savannah State (0-1, 0-1 SIAC) will be back at home on September 6 at 6pm when the Tigers host Shorter.

Stay Connected
For complete coverage of Savannah State University Athletics, follow the Tigers on social media @SavStateTigers on Facebook, Instagram, and X (Formerly Known As Twitter), or visit the official online home of SSU Athletics at http://ssuathletics.com.