ATHENS – Jacksonville State found out just how hard it is to win at the Frank.

Ohio came back from a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit, survived multiple chances for the Gamecocks to win and overcame missing out on some of its own chances before a stop at the 1-yard line finally secured a 29-27 four-overtime victory Saturday night at Peden Stadium.

The Bobcats won their 14th straight home game and improved to 24-1 since dedicating Frank Solich Field in 2022.

"What a game, what a win," Ohio coach John Hauser said. "What a program win by everybody, offense, defense, special teams."

It did not look good as Ohio (1-1) did not have an answer early for versatile Jax State quarterback Caden Creel. Not only that, the Bobcats finished the game playing their third string quarterback and backup running back still somehow found a way, largely with ball-control offense in the second half that did not give Creel and the Gamecocks many chances.

In the end, Levi Davis’ successful conversion run in the fourth overtime resulted in the winning points. After a false start, Jax State’s tying attempt came from the 8-yard line, and safety DJ James-Hamilton, who earlier had a game-changing kick return touchdown, tackled Darius Cannon at the 1 on a pass from Creel in the middle of the field.

Ohio students, many of the shirtless, endured rain throughout the night, and celebrated with Ohio players as they had moved to seating section in the end zone where the game concluded.

Jax State (1-2) missed a chance to win it at the end of regulation when Garrison Rippa badly missed a 38-yard field goal. Will Hryszko’s 42-yard field goal attempt to win at the end of the first overtime was blocked.

How Ohio even stayed close despite being outgained 447-262 is hard to explain, but James-Hamilton’s kick return is a big part of it.

After taking a 14-0 lead, the Gamecocks had an opportunity to go back ahead by 14 but instead settled for a Rippa 22-yard field goal after a touchdown run was nullified by a holding call. Then on the ensuing kickoff, James-Hamilton went 98 yards to the end zone to instead make it 17-14 game.

"The blocks that I saw, it was amazing," James-Hamilton said. "I think I saw two (pancake blocks) running through. … I just knew it had to go to the crib."

Jax State avoided a further momentum swing before halftime. DJ Walker recovered a Creel fumble at the Gamecocks 38-yard line with 44 seconds left, but Hryszko’s 47-yard field goal attempt was blocked.

Instead, Jax State came out in the second half with a 14-play scoring drive that ended with Khristian Lando’s 4-yard touchdown run that made it 24-14. But outside of the final 96 seconds when they nearly produced the winning points, the Gamecocks had only one more possession the rest of the half.

That is because backup Matt Vezza led a pair of extremely long scoring drives. He entered the game early in the second quarter after an injury on a targeting play but did not last through the end of the game either.

The first ended on a Hryzsko 23-yard field goal to make it 24-17 on the first play of the fourth quarter. The second was an 18-play, 90-yard drive the culminated with Victor Rosa’s game-tying 1-yard touchdown run.

Vezza was injured on an 11-yard run to the 3 and replaced by Davis, who on the next play, first was ruled to have scored on a drive at the pylon. On the play after that, starting running back Duncan Brune was injured while being stopped at the line of scrimmage and replaced by Rosa.

As much time as the Bobcats used up, it was not enough to prevent the Gamecocks from having one final shot with 1:34 remaining. Creel converted a third-and-4 with a 5-yard pass to Lucas Farrington and then a third-and-1 from the Ohio 40 with a 23-yard pass to Farrington, but Rippa’s attempt to win it failed.

The Bobcats defense came through on the first possession of overtime. Michael Molnar and Isaac Anderson combined to tackle Creel a yard short of a first down to end the possession.

After Ohio’s drive went nowhere, Hryszko’s kick was blocked, both kickers made field goals in the second overtime to send it to a third overtime, with each team trying two-point conversions instead of getting possessions at the 25. Both quarterbacks threw incompletions on the third-overtime attempts.

Creel, who went 18-of-24 passing for 265 yards and a touchdown and rushed 29 times for 120 yards and a touchdown, was trouble from the start. He scored on an 8-yard run on his team’s first possession and then threw an 82-yard touchdown pass to Luke Gilbert early in the second quarter.

A targeting call on Jonavan Carr on the ensuing possession aided Ohio’s only successful offensive possession of the first half. Vezza got the Bobcats back to within seven on an 8-yard touchdown pass to Riley Neer.

Vezza provided some spark to the offense, going 10-of-12 passing for 80 yards and also rushing 12 times for a team-leading 67 yards. Brune had 18 carries for 66 yards.

On defense, Molnar was all over the field with 13 tackles, including two for loss. He also forced a fumble.

The Bobcats are on the road next week to face South Alabama at 7 p.m. Saturday.