Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Troy Trojans (2-8, 1-4) played their most complete game of 2024 as they snapped a four-game losing streak on Saturday with a 38-24 win over the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (4-4, 1-3) on Homecoming in a Sun Belt Conference game.

Troy piled up 507 yards of offense with a staggering 338 yards on the ground, while the Trojans had two runners surpass 100 yards on the ground in the same game for the first time since 2018. Troy held Coastal to 313 yards of offense, as well. Troy was also only penalized two times in the win.

The win not only snapped Troy’s losing streak but it marked the first conference win under head coach Gerad Parker.

“For our players and staff, I couldn’t be more proud and happy for them,” Parker said of the win. “You can have a lot of pride and a lot of good feelings about things not related to results, but sooner or later there has to be a point in a program where you get it flipped and they see winning results; so, they can believe and have faith in what they’re doing. Tonight that happened for us.”

Troy has built momentum in the last six quarters after nearly coming from behind to beat Arkansas State last week and finishing the job against Coastal Carolina this week. Linebacker Brendan Jackson said it felt like that loss last week might have done more good than bad for the Trojans.

“Last week, that hurt as much as any other loss. It just hurts when you get that close,” Jackson emphasized. “It was like a punch in the gut, like a knockout at the end. We knew being that close, I felt like it was something we needed at the same time, because when we got that close, now we know what it takes to finish those kinds of games. I’m kind of glad it happened, even though I was very mad, because we needed it to grow.”

Running back Damien Taylor, who rushed for 193 yards against Coastal, said the biggest difference maker for Troy is that they never stopped fighting.

“I can tell you one thing, we never stopped fighting,” he emphasized. “For anyone, it’s easy when you’re on a losing streak to give up and stop fighting. It’s easy to take your gloves off and hang your cleats up, but the biggest thing for us is that we never stopped fighting. Even at practice, we kept swinging. We kept pushing each other each day. You reap what you sow and we finally seen it.”

Troy started off the scoring with a 7-play, 99-yard drive that Gerald Green capped off with a 1-yard touchdown run to put Troy up 7-0 with 5:02 left in the opening period. The drive was the longest in Troy’s FBS history and was on the ground the whole way.

Coastal tied the score with an 11-yard run from Ethan Vasko with 1:12 left in the first quarter only for Troy to ramp things up. Early in the second quarter, Matthew Caldwell capped off an 11-play drive with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Devonte Ross to retake the lead 14-7 with 10:42 left in the first half.

Troy added an 83-yard touchdown pass from Caldwell to Green with 4:57 left in the first half to extend the lead to 21-7. A wide open Green took a short pass and raced 83 yards, juking a Chanticleer defender on his way to the end zone. Caldwell tacked on a 1-yard run with just 27 seconds left in the first half to give Troy a 28-7 lead at halftime.

Just as it looked like Troy was going to run away with the game, Coastal began to rally in the third quarter. The Chanticleers cut the Troy lead to 28-10 with a field goal with 9:43 left in the third quarter and then Troy fumbled the ensuing kickoff. Coastal added a 21-yard touchdown run from Braydon Bennett to cut the Trojan lead to 28-17 with 9:2 left in the third quarter.

Troy responded right back, however, with a 41-yard touchdown run from Taylor with 6:22 left in the third quarter where he juked a Coastal defender out of his cleats on the way to the end zone. That score extended the lead to 35-17.

Coastal scored on a 38-yard touchdown pass from Vasko to Jameson Tucker to cut Troy’s lead to 35-24 with 2:20 left. The only score in the fourth quarter came on a 36-yard field goal from Scott Taylor Renfroe to extend Troy’s lead to 38-24. The Trojans then milked the clock for the remainder of the game and sealed the win.

Taylor rushed for 193 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries, while Green rushed for 123 yards and a score on 19 carries. He also had an 83-yard touchdown catch. Caldwell completed 9-of-16 passes for 169 yards and two touchdowns.

Demaje Yancey led the Troy defense with six tackles, one tackle-for-loss, a sack and three pass breakups, while Jackson earned five tackles and one tackle-for-loss.

Troy is off next week and returns to the road against Georgia Southern on Nov. 16.