Chris Hatcher returns home with victory over Mercer
Chris Hatcher's first-ever game coaching in his hometown turned out just the way he would have liked Saturday at Five Star Stadium.
Wrapping up his first season as Samford's head coach, the Macon native and Mount de Sales product coached the Bulldogs to a 47-21 victory over the Mercer Bears. Hatcher's Bulldogs finished off a 6-5 season, including a 3-4 record in the Southern Conference, with a three-game winning streak to end the season, including road wins the past two weeks (last week at Wofford).
"We had a chance early to build a good lead, but we kept bogging down in the red zone area, which is something that has plagued us all season," Hatcher said. "Our kicking game was outstanding, other than we gave up one return. That's something that has been consistent all year, and defensively, we played great.
"I'm just proud of the way the guys really put it down on them in the second half, and that's what good football teams do."
The Bulldogs used two big plays to take control of the game early in the fourth quarter. Leading 19-14 after a 1-yard run from Denzel Williams with 2:20 left in the third quarter, Samford pulled away with a 94-yard touchdown pass from Devlin Hodges to Emmanuel Obajimi and a 77-yard punt return from Kelvin McKnight for a 33-14 lead.
On Obajimi's long score, he caught a short pass from Hodges and broke two tackles before dashing down the sideline for the score. Samford scored 28 straight points to open the fourth quarter, capping its scoring with a 94-yard touchdown run by K'rondis Larry with 4:25 left.
"We just kept bogging down; that's been the theme of our season," Hatcher said. "But we were able to hit some home runs there late in the game. That just opened it up, and it was a great team win. Two weeks on the road in the Southern Conference, it doesn't get much better than that."
Samford dominated offensively throughout the game but settled for field goals early before Williams' touchdown, and Anthony Pistelli delivered when he was called upon. The senior place-kicker from Thomasville hit a 40-yarder in the first quarter and added two 46-yarders in the second quarter and a third 46-yarder in the third quarter. Pistelli set the program record with five field goals against Clark Atlanta two weeks ago.
"He's been outstanding," Hatcher said. "If he's not the all-conference kicker, then there's something wrong with the league. He is a great player, and those were not chip-shot field goals either. His accuracy and his grit, it just kept the game close and gave us a chance there in the fourth quarter."
Hodges finished with 392 yards passing on 30-of-44 completions. Karel Hamilton had eight catches for 101 yards, while McKnight had seven catches for 76 yards, and Obajimi had seven catches for 144 yards. Hodges also had 88 yards rushing on 14 carries, and Williams added eight carries for 50 yards and Larry four carries for 102 yards.
The Bulldogs finished with 654 total yards on 74 plays to 335 yards on 78 plays for the Bears.
"We were beat up, and we had a little rough stretch there in the middle of the season where we just didn't play well," Hatcher said of his team recovering from a three-game losing streak to finish strong. "But our guys bounced back up, and it's really good to see their character show in these final three weeks of the season."
This story was originally published November 21, 2015 at 7:37 PM with the headline "Chris Hatcher returns home with victory over Mercer ."