Benedict College was not the only adversary South Carolina State was facing Saturday night at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium.

Just as important as a win was getting its offense -- specifically running back William Ford and quarterback Malcolm Long -- on track after a poor showing last week against Division I Football Bowl Subdivision foe Central Florida.

From a statistical standpoint and the final outcome, the Bulldogs seemingly accomplished those goals in the 42-3 rout of the Tigers. Ford sparked a revived S.C. State offense, which tallied 412 total yards with three rushing touchdowns and surpassed 100 yards for the first time all season.

As for Long, he was 13-19 passing for a career-high 173 yards and two touchdowns. The Gaffney native also thrilled the home crowd of 10,200 fans with a 74-yard bomb to Phillip Morris in the fourth quarter.

“(Will) didn’t get as much as I liked, but he had a good game,” S.C. State head football coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough said. “Malcolm played better, too, so I felt better.”

It was the 10th consecutive loss in the series for the Tigers (1-1).

Although they rushed for 182 yards and held the football for eight more minutes than S.C. State, turnovers (three for the game), untimely penalties and a nonexistent passing game were just too many hurdles for Benedict to overcome.

“We never did get the momentum,” Benedict head coach Stanley Conner said. “We had too many foolish penalties. We really took ourselves out of the game. We’re not the type of team that can make mistakes and recover. We’re not there yet.”

After a failed onside kick to start the game by Benedict gave S.C. State the football at its own 47, the offense wasted little time trying to erase the memory of last week’s dismal performance. Executing the opening drive to near perfection, the Bulldogs needed just 123 seconds and six plays to get on the scoreboard for the first time this season on Long’s nine-yard touchdown pass to Trey Young.

The next two series for the Bulldogs ended with a punt and an interception thrown by Long to Benedict’s Marquez Gibson. S.C. State quickly regained possession after Dez Benjamin intercepted Robert Spence’s pass and returned it to the Benedict 33.

S.C. State quickly capitalized off the turnover with a seven-play scoring drive capped by Ford’s 5-yard TD to make it 14-0.

Over the next 11 minutes, the Benedict offense controlled the football. Using its mammoth offensive line and the running ability of Spence, the Tigers ran off 18 consecutive plays on the ground in moving the football 63 yards to the S.C. State 18.

Benedict settled for a 35-yard field goal by Alper Keskin to make it 14-3 with 6:13 remaining. When S.C. State sent out Aaron Haire to punt from the Benedict 35, it appeared the momentum was slowly shifting in the Tigers’ favor.

Instead, a roughing-the-kicker penalty kept the drive alive for the Bulldogs. Three plays later, Travil Jamison scampered 11 yards into the endzone to give S.C. State a 21-3 halftime advantage.

A pair of 11-play drives in the third quarter for S.C. State would not only further fatigue the Benedict defense, but allowed S.C. State to increase its lead to 28-3. Ford’s second touchdown of the game from eight yards with 1:47 remaining in the third quarter was set up by an 18-yard completion to Young from Long on a 3rd and 16.

“Our gameplan was to come at them and run the ball and that’s what we were going to do,” Ford said. “We were not going to get away from our gameplan. We stuck to it and we finally got it going late in the second half.”

Before departing the game for good, Long has one more impressive throw in his arsenal. From his own 26, Long arched back and launched a long bomb into the hands of a streaking Morris.

Catching the football in stride with two Benedict defenders in pursuit, Morris coasted into the endzone for the score. Freshman placekicker Blake Erickson added his sixth straight successful PAT to close out the scoring with 10:09 left in the game.

With the offense showing signs of improvement, Pough now hopes to iron out those areas on defense Benedict exploited with its option offense before Saturday’s Lowcountry Classic matchup in Charleston with Bethune-Cookman and the Wyatt-bone.

“It’s a great preparation for next week, it’s just that we showed some vulnerability there,” Pough said. “Hopefully, we’ll seen what we can and can’t do and we’ll get better this week.”

Game notes

Oliver “Buddy” Pough improved to 4-0 lifetime against Benedict. In those four games, S.C. State has outscored the Tigers 186-17 ... Saturday’s attendance of 10,020 fans was up from last year’s home-opening crowd of 8,222 to witness S.C. State defeat Winston-Salem State. However, it paled in comparison to the school-record 24,577 who attended the 1999 matchup between the Bulldogs and Tigers ... The Bulldogs amassed 21 first downs against Benedict, 16 more than they did against Central Florida ... S.C. State is now 43-6 under Pough when leading at halftime ... Defensive lineman Xavier Littleberry (concussion) sat out Saturday’s game, as well as Benedict starting quarterback Kevin Reese ... Long’s previous high in passing yards at S.C. State was 172 against Howard. He’s also let to be sacked in two games this season ... Defensive back Devonne Quattlebaum led the Bulldogs with eight tackles.

n T&D Senior Sports Writer Thomas Grant Jr. can be reached by e-mail at tgrant@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5547. Discuss this and other stories on-line at TheTandD.com.

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