The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Defense Leads Green to 36-21 Victory Over Gold
10/20/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
BOX SCORE | QUOTES | PHOTO GALLERY
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Led by a stout defensive effort, Green defeated Gold 36-21 on Thursday night at BBVA Compass Field in a rematch of August’s Green and Gold game.
The Green defense forced three turnovers, including a pick six from D.A. Williams and had three sacks, one of which was a safety by Garrett Marino. Offensively, Green quarterback Tyler Johnston threw for 216 yards and a touchdown, while also adding a rushing score.
Johnston’s top target was John Nixon who had six catches for 127 yards and a touchdown grab.
For Gold, A.J. Erdely threw for 199 yards and two touchdowns, both of which went to Andre Wilson who finished the game with four catches for 111 yards.
“The defense was a lot better tonight and that is what we wanted to see,” head coach Bill Clark said. “I think our offense came back and did some good things, but I think it was our one defense that played a lot better. They played with a lot more energy. We made some corrections after the first scrimmage. It was good to see the one defense play well. We’re going to depend on them a lot.”
Johnston’s 5-yard rush was the only score of the first quarter as Green took a 7-0 lead after the first 15 minutes. Running back Carlos Stephens then added another score for Green just nine seconds into the second quarter to move them ahead 14-0.
Gold running back Kalin Heath cut the deficit in half with a 4-yard touchdown run to make the score 14-7, but Green would add a rushing touchdown from Lucious Stanley and a receiving TD from Nixon to lead 27-7 at halftime.
Gold climbed back into the game in the third quarter on Wilson’s first of two TD grabs. However, it would be the Green defense that put the game out of reach by scoring the next nine points with Marino’s safety and Williams’ 71-yard interception return, bringing the score to 36-14 in favor of Green.
Erdely would find Wilson one more time for a 59-yard touchdown, which made the score 36-21, but that would be the final score as Green enacted revenge on Gold from the first game in August.
Tevin Crews, Shaq Jones and Broderick Thomas all had five tackles to lead Green, while Jones also returned a fumble 32 yards. The Gold defense was led by Zach Williams with eight tackles and Brontae Harris with seven.
