No. 9 Furman pulled away with a big second half in a 60-21 win over VMI Saturday afternoon at Paladin Stadium.
Down 15-0 in the first quarter, VMI (4-6, 3-4 SoCon), brought the score within one point before exchanging touchdowns to keep the game close but were unable to score in the second half. The loss leaves VMI looking to win their fourth Southern Conference game of the season with one conference game remaining in two weeks.
Despite the loss, VMI junior quarterback Reece Udinski finished with a 23-of-34 passing effort for 213 yards and one touchdown, which is three touchdowns from tying the program record for career passing touchdowns set by Al Cobb (2014-2016).
Redshirt junior running back Alex Ramsey gained 132 yards on the ground against the Paladins to continue his streak of 100-yards rushing games to four in a row and six on the season. Ramsey scored two touchdowns to bring his season total to 22 rushing touchdowns. He now has 1210 rushing yards for the season.
“Furman is a championship caliber team,” said VMI head coach Scott Wachenheim. “There’s one thing I was proud about this team is that I thought we played this team closer in the first half definitely than we did last year. Against this team last year, they got out to a 21-0 start and we didn’t come back. This year, they got out to a 15-0 start and we made it 15-14, 22-21, and we were battling out there. We had our opportunities.
“We turned the ball over too many times for the second week in a row. We made some missed assignments on offense and defense and missed some signals which are inexcusable mistakes that we can’t handle especially when you’re competing against a championship caliber team.”
VMI responded to the early deficit with a 45-yard touchdown pass by Reece Udinski to sophomore Jakob Herres. Ramsey added a 49-yard run for a touchdown to bring the game within one point.
The scoring cycle continued with Devin Wynn scoring his third rushing touchdown of the game with a four-yard score. VMI responded with a one-yard score from Ramsey to bring the game back to one point.
Furman’s quarterback Hamp Sisson found Devin Wynn, this time for a two-yard touchdown pass. After a rare Udinski interception, Furman hit a 48-yard field goal by Grayson Atkins as time expired in the first half to go up 32-21 with some momentum.
VMI was outscored by the Paladins 28-0 in the second half that started with Dominic Roberto getting a one-yard touchdown score and a 71-yard pass to Devin Abrams from Sisson. Wynn scored his fourth rushing touchdown of the day, five total scores, on a 59-yard run, which Jeff McElveen would finish the Paladins scoring round on a one-yard touchdown run.
VMI will travel to West Point next Saturday for the first time since 2010 to battle Army at Michie Stadium. Kickoff is slated for a 12 p.m. start and will be broadcast by CBS Sports Network.
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Chris Graham
