Thursday
Georgia Southern 34, Appalachian State 14
Saturday
Rhodes 12, Berry 0
LaGrange 30, Averett 29
Mercer 27, VMI 24
West Georgia 42, Clark Atlanta 2
Reinhardt 63, Bethel 35
Georgia Military 52, College of DuPage 6
Edward Waters 40, Point 7
Morehouse 2o, Paine 10
Fort Valley State at Benedict, late
Savannah State at Delaware State, late
Miles at Albany State, late
Valdosta State at North Alabama, late
Alex Lakes rushed for 98 yards and two touchdowns as Mercer earned its first Southern Conference victory with a 27-24 win over VMI on Saturday.
Mercer joined the Southern Conference this season after playing last year in the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League.
Safety Zach Jackson’s last-minute interception near the goal line helped preserve the victory.
The Bears (4-1, 1-1) built a 27-14 lead on John Russ’ 62-yard touchdown pass to Chandler Curtis in the third quarter and withstood VMI’s late rally.
Lakes scored on runs of 18 yards and 1 yard, and Curtis added a 23-yard scoring run for Mercer, which had 445 yards of offense. Tee Mitchell added 72 yards rushing.
West Georgia 42, Clark Atlanta 2: Seth Hinsley rushed for 105 yards and two touchdowns as the Wolves improved to 4-0 for the first time since 2000.
West Georgia has allowed two points over the past three games and hasn’t given up a touchdown since the third quarter of the opening game.
Dallas Dickey was 7-of-12 for 117 yards for West Georgia. Hinsley has four career 100-yard rushing games.
West Georgia opens the Gulf South Conference schedule by playing host to West Alabama at 2 p.m. Saturday. First-year Wolves coach Will Hall was the coach at West Alabama the past three years before taking over at West Georgia in November.
Montavious Taylor rushed for 94 yards to lead Clark Atlanta (1-3), which entered averaging 243.3 yards rushing, but was held to 119.
Clark Atlanta will play host to Morehouse at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Morehouse 20, Paine 10: Joshua Burton scored on a 30-yard interception return in the fourth quarter to help the Maroon Tigers win a SIAC game over the first-year program.
Morehouse (3-1, 1-0) picked off Paine quarterback Loranzo Hammonds three times as the Lions remained winless (0-4) in their first season of football since 1962.
The Maroon Tigers took advantage of five turnovers, and Nikolys Baker scored on a 12-yard run for Morehouse’s first touchdown.
