In the battle of the Buccaneers, both with records of 5-5 hoping for a winning season, it would be the Bucs of ETSU that sent their seniors off in grand fashion with a 55-7 shelacking of the Charleston Southern Buccaneers at Memorial Center Saturday night.
The Bucs did just about anything they wanted offensively,. and the defense, with the exception of allowing a touchdown by Charleston Southern early in the first quarter, dominated CSU throughout the contest, giving up only 124 yards of total offense.
Charleston Southern looked like they would make a game of it early, as they trailed only 13-7 at the end of the first, but the Bucs put to rest any notions of this one being close as they rolled off 36 unanswered points in the second and third quarters to turn the contest into a blowout.
ETSU Head Coach Paul Hamilton was pleased with his football team and will miss the seniors who concluded their careers Saturday night.
“I’m very proud of this football team,” he said. “There were lots of questions coming into the season as we lost a lot of quality names. This team raised the level of our program.”
“It’s very emotional to think of these guys moving on,” Hamilton said. “They have set a standard here at ETSU.”
Throughout the contest, several Buccaneer players scored their first career touchdowns since beginning at ETSU.
Senior cornerback Denario Smalls returned a 36-yard interception into the end zone just a minute and 34 seconds into the third quarter for his first career touchdown in the four years he has been at ETSU.
It did not take freshman slotback Andrew Nuckolls long to get into the end zone, as he scored his first touchdown with a minute and nine seconds to go in the first half on a 13-yard run, making the score 28-7.
Nuckolls, however, was not satisfied with just one touchdown, as he found the end zone two more times. One on a 20-yard run six seconds into the fourth quarter and the other, which will be the most memorable, a 62-yard pass from quarterback Todd Wells that gave Wells the ETSU all-time single season passing record.
“I just wanted to do my part,” Nuckolls said. “I didn’t do anything myself.”
The 62-yard touchdown proved to be the last pass of Wells’ career at ETSU, as he left the game in the third quarter to a standing ovation, and will be one he will always remember.
“I give a lot of credit to the guys around me,” Wells said. “I thank my teammates for everything they did for me.”
“It’s a pass I’ll always remember,” he said.
Wells not only set the single season passing mark, but also broke his own single season total offense record he set as a freshman.
Late last week Wells also added another record to his resume as he became the All-Time Southern Conference total offense leader. Wells actually set the record earlier this season but there had been confusion about whether the playoff statistics of former record-holder Michael Payton of Marshall should count and it was decided that they would not.
Hamilton was proud of his quarterback and believed it could not have ended better for him than with the final pass of his career being a touchdown.
“Todd, as a sophomore, came off a couple of tough games,” he said. “But I said he’d come off as one of the best quarterbacks at ETSU.”
“He’s at the top of the list of the Southern Conference,” he said. “He’s No. 1 in offense of the conference, he separated himself, he was always a humble person and each day would do what he had to help the team. He set a standard and legacy here at ETSU.”
Wells finished the game 11-22 for 200 passing yards with two touchdown passes and one interception. He also ran the ball four times for 25 yards and a touchdown off of a quarterback sneak that was the first score of the game.
Also reaching the end zone for the Bucs were fullback Scott Carter off of a 10-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, fullback Corey Carter on a 1-yard run in the second quarter.
Freshman receiver Tony Tiller also found the end zone with a lot of help of Wells and receiver Cecil Moore.
With 9:42 to go in the third quarter, Wells found Moore deep down the field. Moore, with a Charleston Southern cornerback around his ankles, lateraled the ball back to Tiller, who ran it into the end zone, which put the Bucs up 42-7.
Senior linebacker Rahim El Amin also finished out his career as he led the defense with nine tackles as two of them were for loss.
Hamilton was also emotional about losing his defensive leader. “I look at the seniors, they make me proud,” he said. “I don’t know how I’ll let him (El Amin) go.”
The Bucs finished the season 6-5 for their second consecutive winning season, but this was a team much better than the record showed, according to Hamilton.
“This football team was three plays away from being 8-3 and 6-2 in the conference,” he said. “Today they were determined to show what kind of team they are.

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