The Arkansas State football team fell to Auburn 51-14 at Jordan-Hare Stadium Saturday night it its first non-conference road game of the season.
“I didn’t see anything where guys didn’t play or anything like that in the second half,” A-State head coach Blake Anderson said. “We were able to put together some drives in the second half and do some things that looked at times. We’ve seen this before and went through this last year and we just have to get through it and get ready for next week.”
Arkansas State (0-2) scored its first touchdown of the night thanks to a 68-yard pass from Chad Voytik to Christian Booker on the Red Wolves’ second drive of the night. The senior quarterback hit Booker for a pass across the middle of the field and was tackled at the Auburn 1-yard line to setup a quarterback sneak by Voytik on the next play to tie the game a 7-7 with 4:27 to go in the first quarter.
Voytik also led A-State on a 6-play, 53-yard scoring drive in the third quarter that was highlighted by a 34-yard pitch-and-catch to Blake Mack. The senior signal caller capped the drive by running the ball up the middle from five yards out for the Red Wolves’ second score of the night.
Voytik finished the game with two rushing touchdowns, while completing 15-of-21 passes for 215 yards.
Auburn (1-1) scored on six of seven possessions in the first half to spark a 31-0 run to end the half and a 38-7 halftime advantage. The Tigers racked up 452 yards of total offense in the half and scored five touchdowns. Meanwhile, A-State managed 154 yards of offense in the opening half and struggled to get Auburn off the field as the Tigers converted 7-of-8 third down opportunities.
Arkansas State looked to capitalize early in the game when Auburn fumbled on its opening drive. The Tigers were initially ruled down on the play, but after an official review it was ruled that the play was a fumble and Quanterio Heath had recovered the ball.
Auburn used a pair of big plays in the first quarter to score its first two touchdowns. The Red Wolves drove into Auburn territory thanks to a run by Cam Echols-Luper and a personal foul call on the Tigers, but the drive eventually stalled when Wand was stopped for no gain on a fourth-and-2 play. Auburn took advantage of the A-State miscue and took just four plays to score when Sean White connected with Kerryon Johnson on a screen pass on a busted play and took it 47-yards for the game’s first score.
The Tigers scored again when White connected with Kyle Davis on a 42-yard pass that setup a 1-yard run for Johnson to put Auburn ahead 14-7 near the end of the quarter. Auburn scored again on a 24-yard pass from White to Tony Stevens early in the second quarter, while White connected with Will Hastings for a 29-yard score with 1:49 remaining in the half. Daniel Carlson also scored from 20 yards on a fake field goal and then connected on an 18-yard field goal as time expired to end the half.
Carlson also added a pair of field goals in the second half and a second touchdown pass from White to Stevens rounded out the scoring on the night.
Auburn outgained the Red Wolves with 706 yards of total offense to the Red Wolves’ 326. A-State finished with 260 passing yards and had five tackles for loss on the defensive side. Xavier Woodson-Luster led the team with 10 tackles on the night, while Ja’Von Rolland-Jones had a sack.
A-State will take to the road for its next matchup when it travels to Logan, Utah to take on Utah State Friday, Sept. 16. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. (CT) and the game will be shown on the CBS Sports Network.
