Box Score
SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- The Elon Phoenix football team traveled to Spartanburg, S.C., looking to upset the 12th-ranked Wofford Terriers on Saturday afternoon, but the bid fell just short as Wofford stopped a fourth-and-goal play as time expired for a 31-27 win.

After Wofford (4-2, 3-0 Southern Conference) erased a 17-point deficit to tie the game at 24 early in the fourth quarter, Elon (2-5, 1-2) came back with an 11-play, 55-yard drive that ended with a 22-yard field goal from John Gallagher that put the maroon and gold back in front 27-24 with 6:35 remaining.

The Phoenix lead was short-lived, however, as Wofford connected on a 66-yard touchdown pass from James Lawson to Will Gay on the second play of the ensuing drive.

Elon had one final chance to pull out the victory and got the ball back with 5:55 remaining on the clock.  The maroon and gold methodically advanced the ball down the field and had already converted twice on third down before facing a fourth-and-eight at the Wofford 30-yard line.  Mike Quinn hit B.J. Bennett on the fourth-down play for a pick-up of 10 yards to keep the chains moving.  On the next play, Quinn found Andre Davis for a gain of 15 to set up first-and-goal at the five.  Bennett received carries on each of the first three plays and got the ball just inside the two-yard line.  After a time out, Elon lined up with two tight ends and Bennett in the backfield.  On the 19th play of the drive, the ball was handed to Bennett who was stopped at the line of scrimmage as time expired.

Elon head coach Jason Swepson said, "We came out in the first half and played a solid 30 minutes.  In the second half, we came out and had a couple of three-and-outs on offense and, on defense, a couple of facemask penalties on Wofford's scoring drives.  It hurts.  Would we do anything different down there?  I don't know.  We'll look at the tape and figure it out.  You have to give credit to Wofford, they made a play."

Elon received the ball to open the game and quickly moved into Wofford territory thanks to a nine-yard pass from Quinn to Rasaun Rorie and a 20-yard run by Kierre Brown.  The Phoenix moved to the Wofford 23-yard line where it faced a fourth-and-three.  On fourth down, Quinn dropped back and completed a six-yard pass to Justin Osborne to move the chains.  Elon then moved it to the one where Quinn took the snapped and pushed behind his offensive line for a touchdown.

The Phoenix forced a three-and-out by Wofford on its first possession and then got the ball to the Wofford 16 before Gallagher came on to boot a 33-yard field goal that gave the Phoenix a 10-0 edge.

On the first play of Wofford's ensuing drive, the Terriers put the ball on the ground and Elon's Corey Mitchell fell on it to give the ball back to the Phoenix at the Wofford 25-yard line.  Elon got back into the end zone on just five plays as Davis made a diving grab of a Quinn pass to make it 17-0 with around 3:30 left in the first period.

Wofford finally put together a drive that reached Elon territory late in the second quarter.  They got there on a 29-yard run by Gay that tood the ball to the Elon 25.  Three plays later, Jonny Martin took it in from nine yards out as the Terriers cut their deficit to 17-7 with 3:20 left in the first half.

The Phoenix immediately answered the Terrier scoring drive with one of its own.  Elon drove 75 yards in 10 plays and moved ahead 24-7 when Quinn lofted a 12-yard pass to the back right corner of the end zone where Doug Warrick was wide open for his second TD catch of the year.

Wofford began its rally on the first possession of the second half, marching 75 yards to cut the Elon lead to 24-14 when Martin took the handoff five yards for a touchdown with 12:31 on the third quarter clock.

After a Kasey Redfern field goal in the third quarter made it a one possession game, the Terriers completed the rally and knotted the score at 24-all with 12:22 to play in the fourth quarter.  The drive covered 89 yards over 19 plays with Octavius Harden toting the ball in down the Wofford sideline from 23 yards out.

Elon finished the day with 408 total yards of offense.  Quinn put up a career-best  37 completions 37 on 54 passes for 285 yards and two scores.  The Phoenix again ran it for over 100 yards, compiling 123 yards on the ground including a team-best 49 by Bennett.  Rorie finished with a personal-best nine receptions for 80 yards.

Defensively, Mitchell and Jonathan Spain tallied nine total tackles each.  The Phoenix picked off a pass for the third straight game as David Wood intercepted a second-quarter Wofford toss.

Elon will return home to Rhodes Stadium to take on Chattanooga at 1:30 p.m. next Saturday in its annual Pink Zone game.