Coastal Carolina beats Campbell in home opener

On Friday, Sept. 18, Coastal Carolina’s football team celebrated its second win of the season in its home opener, defeating the Camels of Campbell University, 43-21.

The Chanticleers jumped out with a commanding 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Both of these first two touchdowns came on the ground and were scored by senior running back, CJ Marable, and junior running back, Shermari Jones.

To begin the scoring for the Camels, redshirt sophomore, Robert Brown, kicked a 45 yard field goal, making the score 14-3. Then a redshirt freshman quarterback, Grayson McCall, passed a touchdown to junior wide receiver, Jaivon Heiligh, extending the Chanticleer’s lead to 21-3. This was followed by a Camel nine yard rushing touchdown by redshirt senior, CJ Freeman, to end the scoring for the first half, making it a 21-9 game at halftime.

Second half scoring began with a three yard rushing touchdown by Coastal Carolina sophomore running back, Reese White. The Camels scored next via a redshirt junior, Bryant Barr, rushing a touchdown. Marable then scored his second touchdown of the night from nine yards out to cap off a drive lasting less than one minute. This gave Coastal a 36-15 lead.

On the longest and last Coastal Carolina scoring play of the night, quarterback McCall threw a 57 yard touchdown pass to junior tight end, Isaiah Likely. The Camels scored the last touchdown of the game on a four yard touchdown run by sophomore running back, Hajj-Malik Williams, resulting in a final score of 43-21 in Coastal’s favor.

Notable Chanticleer stat lines on the offensive side include McCall’s 11-for 16, 273 yards and two touchdown night, as well as Marable’s 11 rushes for 54 yards and two touchdowns. As for the Chanticleer defense, senior linebacker, Silas Kelly, had eight tackles, including two sacks and two tackles for loss. Sophomore nose tackle, Jerrod Clark, who has been on the rise the past couple of games according to coaches, also had a sack.

Coaches have had high praise for Clark.

In regards to a question asking him if anyone on the defense stood out to him, Defensive coordinator Chad Staggs commented on Clark’s performance on the field.

“He’s turned into a dominant force on the field and has really surprised me,” Staggs said.

Head coach Jamey Chadwell was happy about the win, but also expressed that they could still improve on some things.

“I’m pleased with the team overall, I think there’s a lot of things we can improve on, we’ll start on that tomorrow, and then we have a couple of weeks here to get ready for Sun Belt,” said Chadwell.

Coastal Carolina plays at home again on Oct. 3 against the Arkansas State Red Wolves.