PENSACOLA, Fla. --- The Mississippi College football team dropped a heart-breaking overtime contest by a score of 27-21 to West Florida on Saturday night at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
 
The Choctaws fell to 2-2 on the year with a 1-1 mark in the Gulf South Conference, while the Argos improved to 3-1 with a 2-0 league record.
 

---

 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 - The Choctaw defense made the first big play of the night as sophomore Jalean Brown forced a fumble at the MC 5-yard line and senior Elijah Rogers recovered and ran the ball back 21 yards.
 - After the teams traded punts, the Choctaws marched 81 yards on 13 plays, taking up 7:39 of game time as senior Jordan Wright took a 4th-and-1 handoff 22 yards to the end zone to put MC ahead, 7-0.
 - On UWF's next drive, senior Derric Hawthorn struck for his second interception return for a touchdown in as many weeks as he took an errant pass 65 yards back to the end zone, giving the Choctaws a 14-0 lead with 11:32 to go in the first half.
 - The Argos got on the board late in the half as Austin Reed found Kenneth Channelle for a 32-yard touchdown, making the score 14-7 with 2:13 to go until the break.
 - The Choctaws took the 14-7 lead into halftime.
 - The Argos came out strong in the second half with a defensive stand before tying the game at 14-14 with Reed punching it in from a yard out.
 - MC would turn it over on their next possession and UWF capitalized with a 10-play, 63-yard drive that finished with a two-yard run by Jervon Newton.
 - The teams would trade punts over the next 10 minutes before the Choctaws took over at their own 11-yard line with 3:39 remaining.
 - MC would march 89 yards on 13 plays and senior Detric Hawthorn rushed in from five yards out as time expired on a 4th-and-goal to send the game into overtime.
 - The Choctaws possessed the ball first in overtime, but a crucial chop block penalty call pushed them to the brink of field goal range, and senior Drake McCarter came up just short on a 52-yard attempt.
 - The Argos took over on their first possession, and a pair of tackles for loss by junior Jonathan Jones forced a 3rd-and-16 from the 18-yard line, but Reed found Kevin Grant in the back of the end zone for the game-winning score.
 

---

 
KEY STATS
 - The Choctaws carried the ball 45 times for 185 yards, led by Wright with 67 yards on 15 carries with a touchdown.
 - Hawthorn carried the ball 16 times for 56 yards and a score.
 - Junior Josh Miller led the Choctaws with 10 tackles for the second straight week, while Jones and Hawthorn each had seven tackles.
 - The Argos featured a balanced offensive attack with 196 rushing and passing led by Newton with 100 rushing yards and a score.
 - Reed passed went 14-of-24 passing with 196 yards and two touchdowns, finding eight different receivers for completions with four catching multiple balls.
 - Trent Archie led the team with eight tackles and 2.0 tackles for loss, while Gael Laurent had six tackles and 3.0 for loss.
 

---

GAME NOTES
 - Derric Hawthorn's second interception return for a touchdown this season makes him the first to turn that trick since Hunter Clark did so in 2007.
 - Hawthorn is the 8th player all-time to tally multiple interception returns for scores in the same season.
 - The Argos now hold a 4-0 edge in the series with all four games being decided by 14 points or less.
 - This is the first overtime game for the Choctaws since 2017, a 32-29 loss to Clark Atlanta.
 - This is the first-ever overtime game for the Argos.
 

---

 
NEXT UP
 - The Choctaws will make the long trip to Georgia next weekend to face the top-ranked team in the country in Valdosta State at 1:00 p.m. (CT).
 

---

Mississippi College is a private Christian university located in Clinton, Mississippi with an enrollment of over 5,000 students. MC recently finished their transition process back to NCAA Division II and the Gulf South Conference and began competing for conference and national championships in the 2016-17 academic year.

The athletic department sponsors 17 intercollegiate athletic programs: Baseball, Men's and Women's Basketball, Men's and Women's Cross Country, Football, Golf, Men's and Women's Soccer, Softball, Men's and Women's Tennis, Men's and Women's Indoor Track & Field, Men's and Women's Outdoor Track & Field and Volleyball.

For more information on Mississippi College athletics, please contact David Nichols at 601-925-3234 or nichols@mc.edu.