Mars Hills, N.C. -- The Hawks saw the season's first win slip through their fingers as they fell to Mars Hill 28-21 in overtime.

Shorter moves to 0-2 on the season; while Mars Hill evens its record at 1-1.

The Mountain Lions got the scoring started in the first quarter as Jamel Harbison scored on a one yard run with 2:03 to play. Shorter's next possession resulted in a punt to open the second quarter – a 45 yard attempt from David Thompson – to give Mars Hill the ball on the Hawks 1. Only to have Jevaris Jones force a fumble on the opening play of the drive; which was recovered by Kevin Knight for a two yard score – the first of the season for the Hawks – to tie the game, 7-7.

The score stood through the third quarter, before the Mountain Lions regained the lead, 14-7, in the opening seconds of the fourth on a three yard run from Malik Prescott.

The Hawks tied the game once again minutes later as Barnett Bailey returned the kick-off 65 yards to put his team in position for a Tyler Pullum to Bruce Clark touchdown pass from 7 yards the plays later with 12:56 remaining in the game.

Before taking the lead, 21-14, with just over 6:00 to play as Pullum connected on a 16 yard pass to Kartez Carr, after the Hawks' defense came up with a key stop.

The Mountain Lions closed out regulation on a five play, 72 yard drive to once again tie things up, 21-21.

In overtime, the Shorter won the toss and elected to defer giving Mars Hill the ball to start things off. And, five plays, 25 yards later the Mountain Lions pulled ahead, 28-21. The Hawks chance to score was prolonged as a holding penalty on MHU on fourth down gave Shorter the first down, and new life. Only to have two passes intended for Aaron Bryant to fall incomplete, ending the game.

The Hawks finished the game with 285 yards of offense with most coming in the air as Pullum completed 23 of 38 attempts for 216 yards and two touchdowns.

Rushing, the Hawks netted 69 yards on 37 carries. Ulysses Carswell finished the afternoon with 39 yards on 19 carries; while Demerious Owensby added 27 yards on nine carries.

Cari Coleman finished the game with 63 yards on six carries; while Clark tallied 49 yards on five carries with a touchdown. Bryant posted 43 yards on three catches, and Carr finished with 20 yards on three catches.

Defensively, Rodney Jackson posted 14 tackles – 10 solo, 4 assisted – with 2 tackles-for-loss. Jones added 10 tackles in the game, and Justin Filmore chipped in with 10.
Mars Hill's David Salmon completed 13 of 25 passes for 120 yards; while Harbison rushed for 139 yards on 24 carries and Craig Rucker collected 80 yards on 8 catches.

Shorter will look to get into the win column for the first time in 2016 when they open Gulf South Conference play Saturday, September 17, at 7:00pm from Historic Barron Stadium in Downtown Rome. The game will also be broadcast on ESPN3 as the GSC-TV Game of the Week.