MACON, GA. -- Tyler Huff passed for 293 yards and a touchdown while running for another, and Furman's defense threw a blanket over Mercer's high-powered offense to deliver the FCS No. 13/16 Paladins a 23-13 victory over the No. 11/14 Bears in Southern Conference football action Saturday at Five Star Stadium.

The win was the fifth straight for Furman (8-2, 6-1 SoCon) and fifth consecutive road triumph for the Paladins — the program's longest since winning five straight over the course of the 1989-90 seasons.

Furman plays host to Wofford next Saturday at Paladin Stadium in a noon contest. Mercer (7-3, 5-2 SoCon) travels to league front runner Samford next Saturday.

Huff combined for 369 yards of total offense, tacking on a game high 76 yards on the ground to go along with 293 passing yards.  

Huff's 7-yard scramble for a touchdown in the final minute of the first half sent Furman into intermission with a 10-7 lead.  In the third quarter he connected with wide receiver Joshua Harris, who bounced off two converging Bear defenders  in the middle of the field and broke free for a 56-yard scoring play.  Axel Lepvreau's PAT stretched the advantage to 17-7.

Ian Williams followed up his 44-yard first half field goal with a pair of 36-yard efforts in the second half to extend Furman's lead to 23-7 with 9:16 remaining in the game.

Mercer cut it to 23-13 with an 11-yard touchdown catch by Travion Solomon, but Mercer quarterback Fred Payton was stacked up short of the goal line on the two-point conversion attempt.

Furman's defense slammed the door on its strong performance when free safety Hugh Ryan batted down a fourth down pass attempt with under two minutes left, sealing the outcome,

The Paladins rolled up 460 yards in offense and limited Mercer to 316, including just 53 rushing.  The Bears entered the contest averaging a leading leading 40.3 points per game and 463.0 yards in offense per outing, while also topping the league in total defense.

Harris caught five passes for 146 yards — a new career high.

Dominic Roberto followed Huff in the rushing column with 69 yards rushing on 16 carries.  The Paladin junior also caught three passes for 65 yards, including a career-best 50-yard reception in the second half to set up a field goal.

All-America tight end Ryan Miller's 42 receiving yards upped his career tally to 2,005 yards, making him only the sixth player in program history to top the 2,000-yard plateau.

Senior linebacker Braden Gilby paced the tackle chart with 11 stops, including two for-loss and a sack. The Paladins were credited with five sacks against a Mercer squad that had allowed a league low five sacks entering the game.

Junior defensive end Jack Barton had three tackles, a sack, a pass breakup, and a blocked field goal — his third of the season — on the final play of the first half.  On the season Furman has blocked seven kicks.