The Georgia Southern football squad held its first of two open scrimmages of the preseason camp Saturday evening at Allen E. Paulson Stadium in conjunction with the annual Fan Fest. The offense put up nearly 500 yards of offense and the defense came up with two turnovers, four sacks and four passes broken up.
Quarterback Kyle Vantrease led the offense with 197 yards though the air, including a 9-yard scoring pass to Derwin Burgess Jr. Richie Lankford connected with Marcus Sanders Jr. on a 54-yard scoring pass and Zak Rozsman hit TJ Lewis on a 27-yard scoring play. OJ Arnold, Jalen White and Terron Dixon II all scored on the ground.
All six quarterbacks spread the ball around with 12 players catching at least one pass. Sanders Jr. led the receiving corps with 66 yards and a score with Burgess Jr. accounting for 50 yards and a touchdown. Khaleb Hood had 43 yards receiving, Amare Jones had 61 yards, Darius Lewis had 38 yards and Jeremy Singleton had 26.
Wylan Free forced a fumble on the first drive that was picked up by Marc Stampley II and Dillon Springer recovered a fumble on a botched snap late.
Michael Lantz connected on 3-of-4 field goals with a long of 52 yards and Anthony Beck II punted three times for an average of 46.0 yards.
Scoring:
Arnold 1-yd TD run
Sanders Jr. 54-yard TD catch from Lankford
White 6-yd TD run
Lewis 27-yard TD catch from Rozsman
Burgess Jr. 9-yard TD catch from Vantrease
Dixon II 4-yard TD run
The Eagles will return to the field on Monday for their 10th preseason practice in preparation for the Sept. 3 opener against Morgan State.