Trojans drop heartbreaker to Georgia State

A week after surviving an upset with a last-second field goal, the Troy Trojans (3-1, 1-1) were instead upset by the Georgia State Panthers (2-2, 1-2) at home by a score of 36-34.

The Trojans loss comes despite leading 21-10 at one point and 21-13 at halftime. After Troy went up 21-10, Georgia State reeled off 23 unanswered points to take a 33-21 lead into the fourth quarter.

Troy was able to cut the lead to 33-28 with 13:29 left in the game after Brantley native Jacob Free tossed a 2-yard touchdown pass to AJ Lewis. The Panthers answered, however, and extended their lead to 36-28 with 6:54 left with a 37-yard field goal.

Free managed to cut the lead to 36-34 with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Reggie Todd with just 37 seconds left. Free’s two-point try to tie the game failed, however.

The Trojans then went for a desperation onside kick and seemingly recovered it. The officials, though, threw a flag for illegal touching and despite a replay of the kick officials bizarrely confirmed the penalty. It seemed from every angle on the television broadcast that the Trojans did not touch the ball until it reach the 10-yard threshold.

“The story of the night was the missed opportunities from turning the ball over four times,” Troy coach Chip Lindsey said. “I was really proud of our defense and the way they held an offense that was scoring a lot of points to a reasonable performance.

“And then we created three turnovers, two of which we scored on. So, hats off to the defense for giving us a really good chance to win the game.”

Free completed 24-of-38 pass attempts for 329 yards and two touchdowns along with two interceptions as he came in the game in relief of injured starting quarterback Gunnar Watson. Watson’s injury was described as an “upper body injury” by the Trojan staff and his status for this week is unknown currently.

Despite Watson’s injury, Free led the Trojan offense to 447 yards but the Trojans also turned the ball over four times.

Todd caught eight passes for 130 yards and a touchdown for Troy, while Kaylon Geiger added five catches for 88 yards.

Jayden McDonald led the Troy defense with 16 tackles and three tackles-for-loss, while Carlton Martial had 15 tackles and one tackle-for-loss. Shakel Brown returned a fumble for a touchdown and Reddy Steward returned an interception for a score for the Trojans.

Things won’t get any easier for Troy this week as they have to hit the road to face Sun Belt foe Arkansas State on Oct. 31 at 2 p.m.