CHARLESTON – Charleston Southern opened their home schedule with a 65-0 thumping over Point on Saturday evening. This marked the first shutout for CSU since 2018, third-most points scored in a game in program history and the fewest yards allowed in school history.
The Buccaneers were able to open the day by scoring touchdowns on each of their first four possessions. The first two were rushing touchdowns by
Hakeem Watters from 32 yards out and one yard out. After this
Lek Powell connected with
Mekhi Campfield for a 39 yard score and
Dwayne Wright had a one yard touchdown rush at the start of the second quarter. Entering halftime, the Bucs had a 28-0 lead.
Coming out of the halftime break, Charleston Southern was able to tally 23 points in less than five minutes. Watters had a 59 yard carry on the first offensive play of the half for CSU. After this, the Bucs were able to force a safety on a punt by the Skyhawks. On the kickoff for that play,
Quay Kindell returned it for 73 yards and a touchdown. Later in the quarter,
Kason Hooks had an interception and brought it back 62 yards to the endzone. To cap off the scoring,
Brandon Musch had a one yard touchdown rush at the end of the third and
Sharode Richardson had a 66 yard touchdown carry to place the score at 65-0.
On the ground,
Hakeem Watters led the team in these categories with 123 yards and three touchdowns off seven carries. Richardson had four carries for 84 yards and a score while
Harry Smalls also had a tremendous day with five rushed for 48 yards. Through the air, Powell went 7-8 for 153 yards and a touchdown while
Jared Echols was 6-10 for 81 yards. Kindell was the leading receiver with 64 yards off three receptions with Campfield adding 53 yards on two catches and
Maxwell Warren having three receptions for 48 yards.
On the defensive side of the ball, there were four players who had four tackles on the day to tie for the team lead including Hooks,
Jaiden Coleman,
Austin Brown and
Jamie Williamson. Williamson and
Joshua Modupe each had a sack with the Bucs collecting a total of nine tackles for loss on the day.
The Buccaneers also placed a lot of specialists in the game with
Matt Rolader taking the first five extra points with
Zach Gordon and
Reid Montgomery each getting two apiece. As a team, they went 9-9 on these attempts.
In total, Point finished the night with 41 yards of total offense, the fewest an opponent has had against the Buccaneers in program history. The old record had been 58 against the Guilford in 2000. The Skyhawks had three rushing yards off 34 carries and 38 yards of passing off eight completions and 28 attempts. They were limited to 3 of 17 on third down and 0 for 3 on fourth down including a goal line stand early in the game from the one.
Charleston Southern finished with 582 yards of total offense, the sixth-most in school history. They ran for 348 yards, the most in a game since 2017, off 34 carries for an average of over 10 yards per carry. Through the air, they finished with 234 yards off 13 completions. Additionally, the Buccaneers dressed 88 players and saw 87 of them earn snaps allowing for many newcomers to get their first collegiate snaps.
The Buccaneers are off this upcoming weekend after four straight contests. They return to action on Saturday, October 3 to face Gardner-Webb with the kickoff slated for 6 p.m. with the game to be live on ESPN+. This will mark the third installment in the North / South BBQ Bowl rivalry between the two schools. This will also mark the Hall of Fame game for CSU.
