Due to the late kickoff and an early deadline last night, I was only able to get a few post-game quotes into the paper. So here are the full comments from backup quarterback Aramis Hillary, running back Eric O'Neal and coach David Bennett about the loss -- in which Coastal Carolina fell behind 31-0 in the second quarter before mounting a partial comeback.
Also, as I had at the bottom of the story today, it was believed that starting quarterback Zach MacDowall sustained a concussion in the third quarter Saturday. That's why he was replaced by HIllary.
Coach David Bennett:
On what he thought happened in the first two quarters:
"I don't know, but it was like a dadgum bad nightmare. We've been up 31-0 on someone, but we've never been down, I don't think, 31-0. It was just a freaky thing. ... It was a freaky, freaky deal."
"I tell you what, though. I don't think we've ever been in that situation, I don't think we've been down 31-0, but I'll tell you what -- I'm very proud of our young men for how they fought back. We've just got to be ready to play from the very get-go. I thought our guys were ready to play, but it was just like a dadgum avalanche right there. ...
"They had everything go right for them, and we had everything go wrong for us. ...
"The defense played mighty darn good, I thought, in the second half. The offense played a whole lot better. But you can't get in that big a hole. We told them at halftime, 'This would be an awesome comeback. There hadn't been that many of them, but there have been a few, and we could have one.' So we didn't lose faith. Our kids didn't lose heart, and they fought hard."
On the severity of MacDowall's injury:
"I don't know."
On whether or not it is a concussion:
"I believe that's correct. I believe that's correct."
On how much of a setback this is in the Big South Conference race:
"Well, now you've got to go win them all. Unless I'm wrong, if we win out and somebody was to beat Stony Brook, you'd have a three-way tie. Then they go to head-to-head, and then you're going to have a mess. And then comes points allowed and all that. ...
"But you know what, right now we've just got to regroup, and we've got to take care of the fundamentals and keep these guys up. Because let me tell you something, I don't know how many teams are down 31-0 and fight back like that, but we were proud of them for doing that."
Quarterback Aramis HIllary:
On replacing injured starter Zach MacDowall in the third quarter:
"It kind of wowed me. I still don't really know what happened to Zach. He was off the field by the time [I went out there]. I had to go on the field, so I didn't really talk to him. It was surprising, but I felt like I was ready. I felt like everything was there."
On falling behind 31-0 before scoring three straight touchdowns:
"We got punched in the mouth real early, and we got down. I think we put up a great fight. ... Half of our fans left, but we were still fighting out there, playing for ourselves."
On the mood at halftime, down 31-7:
"We had a lot of intensity, actually. We came out and we were just like, 'We've got to win by 31. Someway, somehow we've got to come out and win by 31. That was our whole mentality when we came out here [after halftime]. We know we got punched in the mouth, but stuff happens. We had to come out here and do the best we can."
On losing the game:
"It's real tough. We've got a lot of preparing to do. Our goal's still ahead. And whether we like our record or not, we've still got to come out and play four games, and we've got to prepare just like it's the first game of the season."
Running back Eric O'Neal
On what happened in the first two quarters:
"We got ourselves in a big hole, and we couldn't get out of it. We came out, played flat in the first half and they jumped out on us. We had to make some adjustments in the second half and came out with a lot of fight, a lot of effort and fought it back, but we just came up short."
On the surprise of falling behind so big so early:
"Like any team when you get hit in the mouth, it's a shocker. But we had to regroup, get things together, figure out what the problem was, and we just fought hard."
On the mood at halftime:
"We just went in the locker room, and we didn't really talk about things we were doing wrong. I mean, we were hurting ourselves. ... Too many [missed assignments]. They really hurt us in the first half, so we tried to cut that out."
On what kind of setback this loss is in regard to the Big South race:
"We'd like to [have] run the table, but that loss is under our belt now and we just have to work hard, and we have to definitely win out now. We'll see how things go."
On what knocked MacDowall out of the game:
"I didn't really see what happened. I just heard he was out, and I went and talked to him on the sideline, and he said he was a little woozy. So I figured he had a concussion or something like that."
| Ryan Young, ryoung@thesunnews.com
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