Old Dominion Hand Georgia Southern First Conference Loss in Dominant Fashion, 47-19

Joe Londergan | Oct 25, 2024

Sep 10, 2022; Greenville, North Carolina, USA; Old Dominion Monarchs head coach Ricky Rahne looks on against the East Carolina Pirates during the first half at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images / James Guillory-Imagn Images

The race for the Sun Belt East Division crown got very interesting on Thursday night. Despite being underdogs heading into their home matchup with Georgia Southern, Old Dominion put forth an explosive performance for a 47-19 win.

The Monarchs' offense racked up 560 yards of offense with quarterback Colton Joseph accounting for five touchdowns. The redshirt freshman made his fourth start this season, completing 20 passes on 26 attempts for 304 yards with four touchdowns through the air. He also rushed eight times for 69 yards and a touchdown.

Senior Aaron Young also rushed 14 times for 77 yards on a touchdown. Isiah Page was the Monarchs' leading receiver with seven catches for 100 yards. Demariyon Houston also contributed four catches for 64 yards and two touchdowns.

Angelo Rankin Jr. forced two fumbles on the night, one of which the Monarchs recovered, and safety Will Jones II picked off a pass.

"Credit to the entire organization," ODU head coach Ricky Rahne told ODUSports.com. "Everyone bought into the plan of how we were going to prepare for this game and they executed it. Our players prepared, our coaches had to give up a couple of reps. Our players got in the cold tubs more. Our strength coaches modified the workouts. I'm just very, very proud of how the team responded against a very good Georgia Southern football team."

Despite 419 yards of offense by the Eagles, Georgia Southern reached the red zone just once. Starting the second half with an interception and two three-and-outs didn't help either.

Old Dominion improve to 4-4 overall and 3-1 in Sun Belt conference play with the win. Georgia Southern drop to 5-3, while also moving to 3-1 in Sun Belt games. ODU and Georgia Southern are now tied atop the east division. However, ODU's head-to-head win over the Eagles could come back into play, if ODU keep up their winning ways by the end of the season.

Old Dominion return to Saturday games next week, traveling to Appalachian State for a 2:30 PM ET kickoff. Georgia Southern play at South Alabama that night at 7:30 PM ET.

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