CONWAY, S.C. - After a hard-fought first half that saw the VMI Keydets trail by just six, the #3 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers outscored VMI 36-3 in the second half, en route to a 66-27 win in Big South football action Saturday night in Conway, S.C. 

The Keydets (1-7, 0-3 Big South) trailed just 30-24 at the break, on the strength of two A.J. Augustine touchdown passes in his first career start, but a Coastal (8-0, 3-0 BSC) interception on VMI's first series of the second half led to a touchdown, putting the Chanticleers up by 14. VMI then got back within 11 after a Dillon Christopher field goal, but Coastal scored the game's final 28 points to account for the final margin. 

Augustine finished 19 for 30 for 237 yards, throwing two touchdowns and two interceptions, while Derrick Ziglar posted a career-high on the ground for the second straight contest, running for 136 yards on 23 carries. 

Coastal Carolina and its high octane offense took the opening kickoff and drove 78 yards in 11 plays as starting QB Michael Church hit Niccolo Mastromatteo on a 17-yard crossing route in the end zone for the game's first score. Church completed all four passing attempts on the drive good for 48 yards.

 VMI answered on its first possession as Augustine rushed four times for 28 yards and Ziglar carried six times for 37 yards to help the Keydets assemble a 79-yard drive in 14 snaps that was capped by a three-yard dump pass to a wide open Mario Thompson with 3:02 left in the first quarter. The possession consumed over seven minutes and tied the game at 7-7. 

Taliaferro rushed 11 yards for a touchdown with 1:07 left to put the hosts back ahead 13-7 with 1:07 remaining in the first quarter as Church nailed three more pass attempts for 41 yards during the scoring drive. The Chants missed a two-point conversion rush before the Keydets answered with a 32-yard field goal by Dillon Christopher to cut the margin to 13-10 early in the second quarter. 

Reserve Chanticleer quarterback Brain Kass was inserted on the next CCU possession and responded by rushing two times for 36 yards including a 24-yard keeper to cap a six play, 36-yard scoring drive and extend CCU's advantage to 20-10 with 10:57 left before halftime. VMI again responded with a Ziglar-Augustine led drive that ended with a 16-yard bounce-out run by Ziglar over 16 yards for the score. Christopher's extra-point was good to pull VMI within 20-17 at the 6:39 mark. Ziglar lugged the ball three times for 29 yards on the drive and Augustine added four assorted aerials in five attempts good for 54 yards. 

Taliaferro's 45-yard burst on the Coastal's next drive pushed the Chanticleers on the door of the VMI redzone, but they had to settle for a 43 yard field goal by Alex Catron to make it 23-17, Coastal with 4:25 left in the half.

The Keydets were forced to punt from the end zone on the their next drive and Coastal capitalized with a four-play 53 yard possession that ended when Matt Hazel snagged a 32-yard pass between two VMI defenders in the end zone to give Coastal Carolina a 30-17 lead. 

VMI again responded with a well executed eight-play, 78-yard hurry-up scoring drive that was sparked by a 21-yard third down conversion pass to Ziglar to the Coastal 38 on a third and 19. Augustine floated a 28-yard touchdown pass to Sam Patterson with seven seconds left in the half and VMI trailed the third ranked Chanticleers 30-24 at the half. 

VMI mustered 17 first downs in the first half and 282 yards total offense. Augustine completed 15 of 21 passes for 192 yards and two touchdowns and Ziglar added 67 yards rushing and a score.

 The second half turned quickly on the Keydets as an interception of an Augustine pass by Richie Sampson at the CCU 48 was returned 18 yards to the VMI 34. A personal foul penalty tacked on 15 more yards and the Chants needed just two plays to cover the 18 yards as Hazel snared his second TD pass on a fade pattern from Church in the left corner of the end zone. A two-point conversion pass to Hazel made it 38-24 Coastal two minutes into the second half. 

Christopher booted his second field goal of the night – a 29-yarder - to cut the Keydet deficit to 38-27 at the 6:00 mark of the third quarter, but that would be as close as VMI would come the rest of the night. The Chants erupted with 28 unanswered points sparked by a 95-yard kick return by Deven Brown on the ensuing kickoff. 

VMI managed just five first downs was limited to 127 yards offense after intermission. 

Patterson led VMI in receiving with four catches for 109 yards for his second straight 100-yard receiving game and Ziglar capped the century mark in rushing for the second straight game and the third time this season. 

The Keydets play their third consecutive road game next Saturday in Lynchburg, Va. Taking on Liberty in a Big South game that kicks off at 3:30 p.m. 

VMI head coach Sparky Woods - 

“I think the thing right now is that we can't stop people right now – we can't stop the pass. We aren't getting our hands on many balls. Coastal has a really outstanding offensive football team. They've scored a lot of points and moved the ball against just about everybody we've played against. We tried to match pretty much, but defensive you've got to get the ball sometime, you've got to get a turnover, or knock it down. And you have to be able to kick it and cover it. Coastal played played well both halves.”

 “We're playing better on offense and Zig is running hard. At times we were getting off the ball pretty good. A.J. keeps making plays and the receivers have something to do with that. Right now, we don't have any confidence on defense. We couldn't get off our end of the field.”