Ace’s sizzle grills Bulldogs’ hopes

South Carolina knocked down Georgia with two quick touchdowns Saturday night. Ace Sanders delivered the knockout blow.

The junior wide receiver gathered in a punt by Collin Barber with a little more than five minutes remaining in the first quarter and wove his way through the Georgia coverage team for a 70-yard touchdown and a 21-0 lead.

The Bulldogs never got up off the ground.

“I probably provide a pretty big spark because I can just see the whole team come behind me and tell me to put it in the end zone, (saying) ‘we know you can do it,’ ” Sanders said. “I just tell them, ‘I’m going to do my best.’ So when I actually do it, and I see how the stadium erupts and I see how our players respond, that’s when I know special teams are a big part of the team.”

Quarterback Connor Shaw, who led the two drives that spotted USC to the 14-0 lead, stated that what Sanders can do on the special teams adds another dimension to the USC attack.

We had good blocking, but he makes a lot of guys miss,” Shaw said. “It’s definitely a plus when you have a guy like that who’s so dangerous back there.”

Georgia defensive back Sanders Commings conceded the return took the steam out of the Bulldogs.

“That was tough,” Commings said. “We could have stopped them because after that our defense shut them out the rest of the half. If we stop them there, it would have been 14-0, and maybe it turns out different.”

The 5-foot-8, 175-pound Sanders also helped the Gamecocks to a blowout win over Missouri earlier in the season with a great day returning punts — including a 49-yarder to set up one touchdown. This time, however, he made it all the way into the end zone with a combination of great cuts and bursts of speed.

And he did it despite initially fumbling the ball.

“I actually dropped it, and I had to scramble to pick it up because I could see a lane open up,” Sanders said. “I did my best to pick it up and just try to hit it as fast as I can. Luckily, they held their blocks long enough for me to hit the seam. I just had to make them keep missing and get in the end zone.”

It was his second career punt return for a score, with the first coming in the 2011 opener against East Carolina in Charlotte on a 68-yard return. Sanders has now returned 17 punts for 263 yards and a 15.5-yard average on the season, a big improvement over the 9.3 yards he averaged on 16 returns last season.

But Sanders is quick to discuss the improvements made by the players around him rather than the ones he has made.

“I see how much better we’ve got as a whole unit,” he said. “The guys are buying in to what Coach (Joe Robinson) is saying and actually listening and going 100 percent every second of that snap. I’m giving my all, they’re giving their all, and good things happen.”

This story was originally published October 7, 2012 at 1:56 AM.