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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 11:11 a.m., Saturday, November 15, 2008

CFB: Georgia holds off Auburn for 17-13 win

By BOB JOHNSON
Associated Press

AUBURN, Ala. — Knowshon Moreno rushed for 134 yards and caught a pass for a touchdown as No. 13 Georgia held off upset-minded Auburn for a 17-13 victory today.

The Bulldogs (9-2, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) went ahead for good with 8:24 to play on a 17-yard pass from Matthew Stafford to A.J. Green and then stopped two late Auburn drives to seal the win.

The final chance for Auburn (5-6, 2-5) came on a fourth-and-1 play from the Georgia 14 when quarterback Kodi Burns overthrew Ben Tate in the end zone with a second remaining.

Stafford completed 15 of 24 passes for 215 yards and two touchdowns. Stafford drove Georgia 60 yards in six plays for the winning touchdown.

Auburn had taken the lead with 11:05 left after grinding out an 11-play, 90-yard drive. Auburn went for it on fourth-and-1 at its 20 and Burns converted with a 1-yard sneak. Auburn's touchdown came on a winding 35-yard run by Mario Fannin.

The drive took up almost six minutes of the third and fourth quarters. It started after Georgia had extended its lead to 10-6 at 1:48 in the third quarter on a 27-yard field goal by Blair Walsh.

Making his first career start at tailback, Fannin ran for 59 yards and caught four passes for 48 yards and another TD.

After Georgia's go-ahead score, Auburn drove 49 yards to the Bulldogs' 21 before a fourth-down pass from Burns to Montez Billings fell incomplete with 4:17 to play.

Auburn's final drive started at its 20 with 1:44 left and was kept alive by third-down runs of 14 and 17 yards by Burns.

Georgia's win gave the Bulldogs a 54-50-8 lead in the Deep South's oldest rivalry that began in 1892. After 112 games, Georgia has outscored Auburn by 49 points.

Georgia started the game fast on a cool, cloudy day, as Moreno rushed for 11 yards over left tackle on the first play from scrimmage and the Bulldogs took off on an 80-play drive from their own 17 to the Auburn 3. But it ended there when Auburn's Tez Doolittle blocked a field goal attempt.

From there the defenses took over and the teams swapped punts until the final seconds of the first quarter, when Georgia's Prince Miller fumbled an Auburn punt and the Tigers' D'Antonie Hall recovered.

On the next play, Burns threw a 52-yard touchdown pass to Fannin. The extra-point attempt failed because of a bobbled snap.

Auburn kept alive its streak of not allowing an offensive touchdown in the first quarter.

The Bulldogs took a 7-6 halftime lead thanks to Moreno, who took a screen pass from Stafford and outran much of the Auburn defense down the left sideline for a touchdown with 3:08 to play in the half.