BSC upends Berry in season finale, 14-7

More news about: Birmingham-Southern

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—The Birmingham-Southern football team defeated Berry 14-7 on Saturday on Battle Field at General Charles Krulak Stadium in the Panthers' season finale, handing the Vikings their first conference loss of the year.

BSC moved to 5-5 overall and 3-5 in the Southern Athletic Association, while Berry fell to 7-2, snapping a seven-game win streak, and 6-1 in the SAA.

The teams played the entire first quarter and part of the second without a scoreboard or visible clock, as the stadium had suffered a power outage earlier in the morning due to a downed power line near campus. The electricity came back on with about 12 minutes left in the second quarter, and by that point the Panthers had gone up 14-0.

BSC's first touchdown came at the 6:22 mark of the first quarter on a five-yard dash by sophomore Justin Woolfolk into the end zone for his third score of the season. The Panthers scored again at the 11:06 mark of the second quarter, this time on a one-yard run by junior Samir Usman for his eighth touchdown of the year.

BSC took the 14-0 lead into the halftime break, and held the Vikings scoreless for most of the third quarter as well. The opponents finally scored with under a minute left in the third on a one-yard run by Austin Lowe.

Berry made it inside the BSC 30-yard line on two of its next drives, but was unable to score again. The Vikings' last two drives ended on turnovers on downs, with both passes broken up by sophomore cornerback Kerrigan Pennington.

Usman led on the ground with 92 yards on 25 carries, while sophomore Jamal Watkins led the receivers with 43 yards on five catches. Junior quarterback Austin Martin was 10-13 for 89 yards.

Freshman kicker Ryder Andrews made both extra points for BSC. On defense, senior linebackerAlex King led with 11 tackles (10 solo) including a sack for a loss of 12 yards. Freshman defensive back Sy Butler had two sacks in the game, Pennington had two pass break-ups, and senior defensive tackle Erez Kaminski had two quarterback hurries.