Georgia Southern finally cracked the Riddle.

            Elon quarterback Scott Riddle passed for 322 yards and three touchdowns, but the GSU offense rolled for 508 yards as the Eagles cruised to a 38-21 win over the No. 10 Phoenix Saturday at Paulson Stadium in the Southern Conference opener for both teams.

            Riddle, a senior, entered the game 3-0 in his career against the Eagles.

            “We drew that into our heads for the seniors this year,” said defensive tackle Roderick Tinsley. “We were just like, ‘We can’t go out there and let [the seniors] down.’ They hadn’t beaten Scott Riddle. We did it for them. As a team, as a defense, as a unit, we all rallied and the offense got behind us to put up points.”

            Tenth-ranked Elon (1-3, 0-1 SoCon) hung around until late in the third quarter, when the Eagles (3-1, 1-0) broke the 14-14 halftime tie when sophomore slotback Darreion Robnson scored on a pitch from four yards out for his first touchdown of the season and a 21-14 GSU lead with 3:16 remaining in the third.

            The score sparked 21 unanswered points.

            The GSU defense responded to the Robinson score by holding Elon to the game’s first three-and-out, and the offense marched down the field again, this time finishing with a four-yard run by senior fullback Tobi Akinniranye, who started the game in place of injured Robert Brown.

            The swell of points was capped off by a pick-six by junior cornerback Laron Scott, who returned the interception 36 yards for a 35-14 Georgia Southern lead.

            “It feels amazing,” said Scott. “Just to go out there as a team, face adversity and come out on top, man it feels great.”

            The Phoenix closed the gap with a fourth-quarter, 13-play, 85-yard drive on the next possession to cut te GSU lead to 35-21, but Adrian Mora’s 22-yard field goal – his sixth of the season to remain perfect on the year – put the game at the final margin.

            Short a man on offense, the Eagles got contributions from slotbacks Darries Robinson (13-92), Nico Hickey (4-63) and Darreion Robinson (4-42), along with fullbacks Lee Banks (25-121) and Akinniranye (9-34).

            The slotbacks got a majority of their yards on an A-back sweep, which worked consistently throughout the contest.

            “We didn’t know [the play] would be a big factor, but once we saw it was working, coach just ran it.”

            Banks led all rushers in only his second appearance on the GSU offense.

            “When you get the opportunity, you’ve got to play tough no matter what. Coach teaches us to play tough mentally and physically,” said Banks. “We’re going to get tougher every week, coach pounds it into our heads.”

            The teams opened the game by turning each other over.

            Elon took the game’s first drive 51 yards to the GSU 17-yard line before a hard hit by Scott on the receiving end of a Riddle pass popped up in the air allowing E.J. Webb to pick it off.

            Conversely, The Eagles drove 43 yards on five plays before Akinniranye fumbled it back to the Phoenix.

            Riddle touchdown passes of 15 and 3 yards to Jeremy Peterson and Aaron Mellette got Elon on the scoreboard in the first half.

            Georgia Southern kept it even, with scoring runs of 1 and 2 yards by quarterback Jaybo Shaw, to enter halftime with the game tied 14-14.

            The Eagles out-gained Elon 266-206 in the first half, rushing for 181 yards. Elon got 201 of its 205 through the air. The Phoenix finished the game with only nine rushing yards, compared with GSU’s 379.

NOTES: Jeff Monken became only the second GSU head coach to win his first SoCon game. The only other coach to do so was Paul Johnson, who defeated Wofford September 7, 1997 in his first-career SoCon matchup. … The last time GSU beat a ranked opponent was Nov. 15, 2008, when it defeated No. 14 Furman 17-10. … The last ranked team to lose to GSU in Pau7lson Stadium was No. 25 The Citadel, who fell to the Eagles 21-17 in 2007. … Elon ran 77 plays against Richmond in last weekend’s loss to Richmond. The Phoenix ran only 59 Saturday, as opposed to Georgia Southern’s 84. … Elon true freshman Edward Burns, formerly a Screven County Gamecock, got his first-career start at safety Saturday. … Announced attendance was 18,302.

            Matt Yogus can be reached at (912) 489-9408.