Murray, Georgia Makes it Three Straight Wins Over Florida
The Georgia football
team held on for a 23-20 win over the Florida Gators in front of a
capacity crowd at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., and a
nationally-televised audience. The Bulldogs improve to 5-3 on the
season, including a 4-2 mark in Southeastern Conference action. Florida
drops to 4-4 overall and 3-3 in the SEC.
Aaron Murray led the
Bulldogs passing attack, finishing with 258 yards and a touchdown on
16-for-25 passing. Todd Gurley returned for the Bulldogs and led the
team with 17 carries for 100 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
Brendan Douglas finished with 36 yards on six carries. Gurley was also
Georgia's leading receiver, picking up 87 yards and a touchdown on
three catches. Michael Bennett ended the game with five catches for 59
yards. Rhett McGowan finished with three catches for 43 yards.
Ramik
Wilson led Georgia's defense, racking up 11 tackles. Garrison Smith
added nine stops, including three sacks for a loss of 12 yards. Corey
Moore also had a sack to go along with five tackles. Amarlo Herrera had
seven tackles.
Georgia jumped out to an early 14-0 lead in the
first quarter, scoring on its first two possessions of the game. On the
first drive, Gurley took the ball 39 yards on two carries down to the
Florida five-yard line before taking the handoff from Murray to the end
zone that put Georgia up 7-0, after the Marshall Morgan extra point.
After
the Gators missed a 40-yard field goal attempt, Georgia got the ball
back with just over 10 minutes on the clock. On third-and-six, Murray
found Gurley over the middle for a 73-yard touchdown that made it a
14-0 game, following the PAT.
On its third possession, Murray
led the Bulldogs into Gator territory with the help of a bruising
21-yard run by Douglas. The drive was capped off by a 49-yard field
goal by Morgan that gave the Bulldogs a 17-0. Georgia added another
field goal on its next possession, this time a 27-yarder that made it a
20-0 game with 14:37 on the clock in the second quarter.
Florida
got its first points of the game five minutes into the second quarter
on a 31-yard field goal by Frankie Velez that made it a 20-3 game.
After
the Gators failed to convert on 4th-and-10, the Bulldogs got the ball
back at their own 43. After a first down catch by McGowan, Morgan
trotted on to the field and made a 32-yard field goal that extended
Georgia's lead to 23-3 as time expired.
The Gators scored
their first touchdown of the game following a Georgia turnover with
6:21 left to play in the third quarter. Two players after a fumble on a
lateral pass by Murray, Florida found the end zone on a five-yard run
that cut the Georgia lead to 23-10, following the extra point. With
1:23 left in the third quarter, Murray was sacked in the end zone for a
safety that brought the score to 23-12. Following the free kick, the
Gators went 50 yards on five plays for a touchdown and a two-point
conversion that made it a three-point game at 23-20.
Georgia
got the ball back with 8:17 left in the game and milked the clock for
the remainder of the contest with the help of five first downs,
including one by McGowan with just over two minutes left. A personal
foul penalty on the Gators allowed the Bulldogs to hang on for the win.
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