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ELON, N.C. -- Playing its final home game of the 2013 season, the Elon football team honored 10 seniors prior to the game, but saw visiting Georgia Southern spoil the festivities in a 38-20 contest from Rhodes Stadium on Saturday evening.

"It was kind of the same old story.  We were moving the ball down the field, but not coming away with touchdowns," stated Elon head coach Jason Swepson.  "The kids are playing hard.  I don't think anyone has seen any quit in this team.  To see Chandler Wrightenberry play on special teams and give it all he's got was great.  Now it's our job as a staff to finish up strong."

Elon (2-9, 1-6 Southern Conference) jumped out to a 6-0 lead midway through the first quarter after John Gallagher booted field goals of 44 and 24 yards.  The maroon and gold racked up 171 total offensive yards in the first 15 minutes of play, including 105 yards on 13 carries in the period.

Georgia Southern (6-4, 4-4) grabbed the lead with 2:09 left in the first quarter on a 53-yard dash by Kevin Ellison.  The score came on just the second play of a drive that began at the GSU 43 following an Elon punt.

The Eagles stretched their advantage to 17-6 thanks to a two-yard TD run by Irving Huggins and a 49-yard field goal off the foot of Younghoe Koo.

With GSU up 31-6 late in the third quarter, Elon struck for six on a 23-yard pass from Mike Quinn to Kierre Brown.  The Phoenix began that drive at the Elon 47 following Brown's kickoff return of 47 yards.  Elon moved to the Eagles' 47 after connections of six and five yards to Doug Warrick and B.J. Bennett, respectively.  On third-and-six at the 38, Quinn hit Brown for a 15-yard gain and a first down.  The next play saw Quinn drop back and loft a perfectly placed ball to the end zone where Brown snared his second TD of the year.

Elon later added a final touchdown when John Loughery tossed a 27-yard pass to Demitri Allison late in the fourth quarter.  The TD was the first for both Loughery and Allison.

Defensively, John Silas posted a career-high 14 tackles to lead all players, while Jonathan Spain made 12 stops, including a sack for the Phoenix.  Spain now has 238 career tackles, good enough to rate sixth on Elon's FCS top-10 chart.  Tony Thompson also posted a personal-best in the tackles category, making eight stops in his final game in Rhodes Stadium.

Quinn finished the game with 197 passing yards and one TD on 22 completions.  Brown lead all receivers with six catches for 54 yards.  Brown accounted for 193 all-purpose yards as he added 136 yards on kick returns and three yards on punt returns.

Elon will wrap up the 2013 season next Saturday afternoon with 3 p.m. Eastern kick in Birmingham, Ala., against the Samford Bulldogs.