Coastal Carolina 31, Winston-Salem State 12

Setpember 30, 2006

WINSTON-SALEM, NC – Tyler Thigpen’s four touchdown passes to three different receivers led the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers over the Winston-Salem State University Rams on Saturday evening at Bowman Gray Stadium by the score of 31-12 as WSSU dropped their third consecutive game.

The Rams drew first blood as redshirt freshman running back Brandon McRae (Washington, DC/Charles H. Flowers H.S.) capped a six-play, 80-yard drive with a 46 yard touchdown run.  McRae’s scoring run would be the longest play of the 2006 season for the Rams as WSSU jumped out to an early 6-0 lead (following a missed point-after attempt).

The Chanticleers immediately responded, scoring on back-to-back possessions as Coastal Carolina quarterback Tyler Thigpen completed touchdown passes of 45 and 11 yards to Chris Noble and Jerome Simpson to build the Chants’ lead to 14-6 midway through the first quarter of play.

A Josh Hoke 24-yard field goal with 1:37 remaining in the half enabled the visiting Chanticleers to increase their lead to 11 points at 17-6 headed into the halftime intermission.  

Coastal Carolina scored a pair of third quarter touchdowns to pull ahead by the score of 31-6 as Tyler Thigpen tossed his third and fourth touchdown passes of the game.

The Rams responded on their first drive of the fourth quarter as Roderick Fluellen (Columbia, SC/Richland Northeast H.S.) busted his way into the endzone from 13 yards out as he put the finishing touches on a 14-play, 80-yard drive to cut the Rams’ deficit to 19 points at 31-12.

WSSU and Coastal Carolina would trade possessions for the remainder of the contest as neither team would score again in the game. 

The loss drops the Rams to 1-4 overall while Coastal Carolina improves to 3-2 with the win (0-0 Big South).

Winston-Salem State University returns to action next Saturday, October 7, 2006 at 2:00 pm as they play host to the Bison of Howard University.  The contest will mark the Rams’ Homecoming game.