Christopher Johnson and A’chean Durant combined for three rushing touchdowns as Benedict pulled away in the second half to beat Clark Atlanta, 31-3, Saturday in Columbia.
COLUMBIA, S.C. There’s a moment in every blowout when you can feel it coming before the scoreboard catches up. For Benedict, that moment arrived early, the second its offensive line started winning snap after snap up front. From the sideline, you could watch Clark Atlanta’s defense wear down in real time. By the fourth quarter, this wasn’t a football game anymore. It was a showcase.
Clark Atlanta (1-5, 1-3) got the party started first, Cedric Oglesby splitting the uprights from 37 yards to cap a 7-play, 73-yard opening drive. For about a quarter, the Panthers believed. Then Benedict remembered who they were.
Thirteen plays. Sixty-seven yards. Pure will. Christopher Johnson capped Benedict’s answer with a 2-yard touchdown run, and the Tigers (4-1, 2-1) never trailed again. Zane Spires tacked on a 33-yard field goal right before the half to make it 10-3, and you could already feel the shift on the sideline. Benedict knew. Clark Atlanta knew it, too.
Then the third quarter hit, and Benedict put the foot down. Jett Peddy found Curtis Favors Jr. for a 13-yard touchdown strike. Johnson broke off his second score of the day, untouched for 29 yards. And just when it looked like the Tigers couldn’t top themselves, A’chean Durant turned a routine handoff into a 52-yard sprint to the house, the kind of run that has an entire sideline chasing the celebration into the end zone.
The numbers tell the same story the eyes did. Johnson finished with 111 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries. Durant needed only six touches to put up 102 yards and a score, 17 yards a pop. Peddy was surgical all afternoon, 14-of-24 for 191 yards and a touchdown, spreading the ball to seven different targets with Reece Dobard leading the way, seven catches for 76 yards. And Spires? Automatic. Perfect on his only field goal try, a 33-yarder, and all four extra points.
Benedict’s defense matched the energy stride for stride. Joshua Lee picked off two passes. The Tigers held Clark Atlanta to just 280 total yards and a brutal 5-of-14 on third down. Up front, Ty’Metrius Patterson and Caleb Edwards made life miserable, combining for four tackles for loss.
Trayvon Pinder gave Clark Atlanta its biggest offensive spark, breaking off a 63-yard run in the first quarter on his way to 188 yards on 17 carries, but the Panthers couldn’t turn those yards into points, going 0-for-2 in the red zone while turning the ball over three times.
OK3Sports Player of the Game
A true freshman doing veteran things. Christopher Johnson, a 6-foot, 210-pound back out of Opelika, Ala., carried the load for Benedict all afternoon, punching in two rushing touchdowns and finishing with a team-high 111 yards on 14 carries. Watching him run downhill, you could feel that Bama strength, the kind of physical, no-wasted-motion running style this state has always produced. For a first-year player to control the tempo of a game like that says everything about where this Benedict backfield is headed.
By The Numbers
- 3 — Rushing touchdowns for Benedict (Johnson x2, Durant x1)
- 111 — Rushing yards for freshman Christopher Johnson
- 17.0 — Yards per carry for A’chean Durant
- 52 — Durant’s fourth-quarter touchdown sprint, the longest TD of the day
- 191 — Passing yards for Jett Peddy, 14-of-24
- 2 — Interceptions by Joshua Lee
- 31 — Unanswered points by Benedict after Clark Atlanta’s opening field goal
- 500 — Total yards for Benedict on offense
Benedict improves to 4-1 overall, 2-1 in conference. Clark Atlanta drops to 1-5 (1-3), still searching for the signature performance to turn its season around. Saturday in Columbia wasn’t it.
Benedict walked off its home field having rushed for 301 yards, piled up 500 yards of offense and scored 31 unanswered points. Whatever questions remained after last week’s loss to Tuskegee, the Tigers answered quite a few of them Saturday afternoon.