MARTIN, Tenn. – In a tale of two halves, UT Martin held off a late surge by visiting Missouri State to cling to a 38-31 win over the Bears here Saturday in non-conference play.
MoState rallied from a 24-7 halftime deficit to tie the game twice in the fourth quarter, 24-24, and 31-31, before the Skyhawks pushed across the winning touchdown with 1:45 to play.
MSU outgained the home club 358-158 in the second half alone and 513-512 overall.
Sam Franklin finished with 20 carries for 259 yards and three touchdowns to lead UTM, including the game-winner that capped an eight-play, 76-yard drive for the Skyhawks in the final moments to make it 38-31.
The Bears got the ball back with an opportunity to tie the game once again in the final two minutes. Starting quarterback Jacob Clark converted a third-and-one at midfield by calling his own number for a one-yard carry with 57 seconds left. After an incompletion and a short pass to Celdon Manning, the Bears brought in Jordan Pachot at QB, and he promptly hit Terique Owens for a 20-yard pass to the UTM 29.
On the next play, Pachot was forced out of the pocket and scrambled right, but he couldn’t get out of bounds to stop the clock. Out of timeouts, the Bears were unable to get to the line of scrimmage before the clock hit zero and ending the game.
Clark finished 23-of-42 for 332 yards, 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. Raylen Sharpe (142 yards) and Hunter Wood (74) yards each had 7 receptions for Missouri State to lead the receiving corps, while Jacardia Wright shouldered the load out of the backfield with 18 carries for 46 yards.
Franklin’s 259 rushing yards on 20 attempts was the most by a Missouri State opponent since 2008. Skyhawks quarterback Kinkead Dent finished 14-of-33 for 107 yards and a pair of TDs.
After the Bears trailed by 17 at the intermission, they took the opening kickoff of the third quarter deep into UTM territory before attempting a 48-yard field goal by Owen Rozanc. What would have been a career-long kick for the new Bears kicker came up just short, hitting the cross bar and caroming off to keep it a 24-7 game.
But MSU rallied from there, using defensive momentum to spark the offense. The Bears outgained UT Martin 161 to 14 in the third quarter and allowed just one first down before forcing the home side into two three-and-outs.
Meanwhile, the offense found its groove to reel off the three straight UTM punts to get a pair of touchdowns and a field goal to tie the game up. A Clark TD pass to D’Vontae Kay made it 24-14 with 5:29 to go in the third, and then Rozanc booted through a 38-yard field goal to make it 24-17 early in the fourth.
Clark then engineered a game-tying, 71-yard touchdown drive with 9:39 to play that included a 23-yard pass to Manning on third down and a 28-yard pass to Wood on a critical fourth down. The tying score was a 10-yard pass from Clark to J’mariyae Robinson with 9:39 to go.
After UTM retook the lead at the 9:04 mark on a 49-yard run by Franklin, the Bears were game for the fight with Wright capping a 75-yard, 11-play march to tie it again, 31-31. MoState’s feature back punched it in from four yards out for his first score of the season, coming with 5:21 to play.
The Bears finished 10-of-21 on third down and outgained the home side by a 358-158 margin in the second half, including a 294 to 9 advantage on passing yardage.
Todric McGee had 15 tackles for the Bears to lead the comeback effort, while Avery Powell tacked on ten more.
In the first half, the Bears fell behind quickly, surrendering an 81-yard touchdown run by Sam Franklin on the first play of the game. Just over two minutes later, the Bears tied the game, 7-7, when Jacob Clark threw a 33-yard scoring strike to Raylen Sharpe in the right corner of the end zone to cap a 75-yard MSU scoring drive.
Missouri State held the Skyhawks to a missed field goal on the ensuing possession. But the momentum shift was short-lived as the visitors coughed it up at their own 33 three plays later. UT Martin converted the turnover into three points on a 29-yard field by Aidan Loras with 7:16 left in the opening quarter.
The home side then reeled off two more scoring drives before the intermission on drives of 66 and 85 yards, respectively, to take a 24-7 lead into the locker room.
To its credit, Missouri State’s defense got a key fourth-down stop deep in Bears’ territory late in the half and forced a punt on UTM’s last full possession of the second quarter.
UT Martin racked up 362 total yards in the opening 30 minutes, including 264 on the ground, compared to 155 total yards by the Bears.
Missouri State will now have a week off to prepare for its home opener on Saturday, Sept. 23 vs. Utah Tech at 2 p.m.
