Charleston Southern Shuts Out Hawks 27-0

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – Charleston Southern quarterback Austin Brown ran for a pair of touchdowns as the Buccaneers defeated the Monmouth University football team, 27-0, Saturday afternoon on a rain-soaked Kessler Field at Monmouth Stadium. With the loss, the Hawks fall to 5-3 (0-2 Big South), while Charleston Southern improves to 6-3 (1-2 Big South).

Monmouth lines up against Charleston Sourthern (Monmouth Athletics)

“Obviously we didn’t play very well today,” said Head Coach Kevin Callahan. “When you play against a good team and you don’t play your best football, the result we had today is what is going to happen. Early in the game we had some tough field positions on defense and never really got into sync in defending the option until the second half. Even then at 14-0 at the half I thought we had an opportunity to get some things going but we really needed to stay on the field on offense and get some production there but it was difficult for us today. I don’t think the weather had anything to do with the play today, we just played a good football team and they did a better job than we did.”

The Buccaneers racked up 338 yards on the ground, with Ben Robinson and Mike Holloway finishing with 91 yards apiece. Robinson also punched in one touchdown. Christian Reyes also finished with 70 yards, while Brown accounted for 54 rushing yards to go along with 73 passing yards. Nathan Perera had three receptions for 35 yards for the Buccaneers, while Chris Theodore had two catches for 30 yards.

Lavon Chaney (Edgewater, Md./South River) led the Hawks with 43 rushing yards, while also hauling in five receptions. Hakeem Valles (Sicklerville, N.J./Peddie School), Eric Sumlin (Dover, Del./Dover) and Neal Sterling (Belmar, N.J./Manasquan) had two receptions apiece, with Valles finishing with a team-high 37 yards.

Tyler Thompson (Union Bridge, Md./Linganore) led the Monmouth defense with 12 tackles, while Mike Basile (Brick, N.J./Brick Memorial) and John Sieczkowski (Manalapan, N.J./Manalapan) had eight tackles apiece.

After a scoreless first quarter, Charleston Southern got on the board when Robinson punched it in from one yard with 13:37 left in the second quarter. The touchdown run punctuated a five-play, 60-yard drive covering 2:07. On the Hawks’ next possession, CSU’s Malcolm Jackson intercepted Monmouth quarterback Brandon Hill (Audubon, N.J./Audubon [UMass]), setting up the Buccaneers at the Monmouth 25 yard line. Six plays later, Brown ran it into the end zone from a yard out with 9:10 left in the half, giving CSU a 14-0 lead.

The Buccaneers made it a three-score game with 5:23 left in the third quarter, when Brown capped a 10-play, 74-yard drive with 12-yard touchdown run on an option keeper. CSU kicker David Kennedy capped the scoring with a pair of 34-yard field goals in the fourth quarter.

The Hawks return to Big South action next Saturday, Nov. 8, when they travel to Liberty. Kickoff from Williams Stadium is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.