ROME -- The Hawks fell to No. 17 Delta State 54-73 in front of the home crowd on Saturday afternoon.

With the loss, Shorter slips to 0-4 on the season and 0-2 in conference play; while the Statesment improve to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the GSC.

After Delta State extended their lead to 10-0 with 4:11 to play in the first, the Hawks cut into it on their next drive as Brady Hammel posted his first career field goal, on a 26-yard attempt. To set up the field goal, Barnett Bailey tallied Shorter's longest kick return of the season so far, with a 90-yard return. The Statesmen then answered before the quarter ended to make it a 17-10 game.

In the second quarter, the Hawks got things going, tacking on two touchdowns. The first came as Elijah Gilbert collected a 51-yard pass from Pullum for his second touchdown of the year with 10:41 on the clock to make it a 17-10 game. Only to have Delta State regain the margin with a touchdown of their own moments later, before Shorter tallied their second of the quarter on a 40-yard reception by Kartez Carr.

From there, the Statesmen pulled away, tallying three touchdowns and a safety to extend their lead to 47-17 with 7:16 remaining in the third. Hammel then added a second field goal of the game to halt Delta State's momentum, this time from 31 yards out for the 47-20 score.

The fourth would then be cut short as lightning was detected in the area and the decision was made to call the game, rather than wait out the delay. But, not before Delta State added a final touchdown for the 54-20 score. The game officially ended with 10:35 remaining.

In total the Hawks tallied 302 yards of offense with 262 coming in the air from Tyler Pullum, to set a new single game passing mark. In 12 career games for the Hawks, Pullum has passed for a new program high in four. For the afternoon, he also tied his program record for completions in a game as he completed 23 of 37 passes with two touchdowns.

B.J. McCoy led the run game for Shorter, posting 36 yards on 16 carries, while Gilbert turned in a team high 72 yards on three receptions.

On defense, Nehemiah Reddish and Kareem Taylor each came up with nine tackles; while Kevin Knight added seven and both, John Jarrard and Le'Chauz Langford added six.

The Statesmen finished the game with 504 yards of offense, with QB Breck Ruddick going 19-27 passing with 272 yards. Chris Robinson posted 118 yards on 15 carries, and Gary Fletcher led on the receiving end with 116 yards on three catches. On Defense, Johnquavious McBride recorded nine tackles.

The Hawks will be back in action next week at West Alabama in Livingston, Ala. with game time set for 7:00pm EST.