The Troy Trojans scored 18 unanswered points in the second half and beat the Georgia State Panthers 31-21 on homecoming.

The win gives the Trojans their first 5-1 record since 2000 and came in front of the seventh largest crowd in stadium history.

“Great program win today,” said Trojans head coach Neal Brown. “A huge thanks to the fans and the alumni. They created a great atmosphere, and I thought our kids fed off that.”

The 23,913 crowd set a stadium record for Sun Belt Conference game attendance, and helped spur the Trojans to avenge last season’s 31-21 loss to the Panthers.

“I knew going into this game that it was going to be a really tough matchup,” Brown said. “We study our opponents a lot during the summer. I knew for a long time this was going to be a tough matchup.”

The Trojans overcame a six-point deficit and rattled off 17 unanswered points in the third quarter, and Brown said after the game that the team may not have been able to do that a year ago.

“We were in a similar game like this against Idaho last year and we didn’t respond,” he said. “I think it speaks to our leadership, and I think our assistant coach played a huge role in that.”

The Trojans took the opening drive 20 plays for 53 yards and took 9:15 off the clock. The drive was stalled by penalties and the Trojans were forced to settle for 39-yard field goal by Ryan Kay.

The teams were scoreless until two seconds remaining in the second quarter when Kay connected on a 27-yard field goal giving Troy a 6-0 lead at the half.

The Troy defense held the Panthers to 79 yards in the first half and put up 169 yards. Jordan Chunn carried the ball 20 times for a total of 91 yards.

The Panthers claimed the lead on the opening drive of the second half with a nine-play, 85 yard drive capped off by a 15-yard pass from Connor Manning to Todd Boyd.

The Panthers extended their lead with 9:03 remaining in the third quarter when Manning connected with Robert Davis on a 65-yard pass.

The Trojans had the ball inside the Panther one-yard and failed to score after a questionable holding call wiped away a Chunn touchdown. Kay converted on his third field goal attempt to cut their deficit to 14-9.

The holding call was one of two questionable calls by the official on the drive.

““This game is really hard to officiate and those guys do a really good job,” Brown said. “If they make a mistake, it’s no different than our players or our coaches, they are not trying to make a mistake. But, it felt like that I really needed to light a fire under our team and create some emotion and we did that, they fed off that.”

The Trojans recovered an on-side kick on the Panther 35-yard line. The Trojans took the lead with a three-yard touchdown run by Chunn. Troy native John Johnson ran the ball for the two-point conversion, putting Troy up 17-14.

“That was a huge momentum change,” Brown said. “We hit a huge pass play on the very next play; then we were in the end zone and we were able to take the lead.”

The Trojans scored their 18^th unanswered point in the second half when Silvers connected with Josh Anderson on a 15-yard touchdown pass to give the Trojans a 24-14 lead with 13:24 remaining.

Demetrious Cain picked off a Manning pass early in the fourth quarter making it the fifth consecutive game that the Trojans have had multiple interceptions.

Deondre Douglas capitalized on the interception when he hauled in a 29-yard touchdown pass from Silvers to give Troy a 31-14 lead with 9:14 remaining.

Silvers finished the game 20-35 for 235 yards and two touchdowns, while Chunn led the Trojans in rushing with 97 yards and a touchdown.

On the defensive side, of the ball Cedarious Rookard led the team in tackles with seven.

The Trojans will travel to Mobile to take on South Alabama on Thursday. Kickoff is 6:30 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on ESPNU.