Boxscore
BALTIMORE, Md. -- Norfolk State used their offense efficiently to knock out the Bears 31-23 during “Senior Night” at Hughes Stadium.
Domanick West started the scoring by running the ball in from three yards out. It helped the Bears surge ahead 7-0 with 10:37 left in the first quarter. The Spartans answered when Josh Anderson picked off MSU senior quarterback Carlton Jackson and ran it back 62 yards for a score, tying the game at 7 with 4:40 remaining.
“The turnover put us in a bad situation,” said Jackson. “They went up and scored, and it just killed the momentum. That was a big play for them.”
Jackson, playing in his final home game at Hughes Stadium, finished the night by completing 14-of-29 passes for 149 yards and had 16 carries for 58 yards.
Morgan State's (5-4, 3-3 MEAC) defense had an uncharacteristically poor night on their side of the ball. The defense gave up 379 total yards of offense to the Spartans, including 215 passing yards by NSU quarterback Dennis Brown. Brown finished with two touchdowns and an interception on the night.
NSU running back DeAngelo Branche had a great night running the ball with 19 carries for 145 yards and a touchdown. Branche also scored on a 16-yard touchdown reception.
“We just didn't play our game of football on the defensive side. They came downhill at us, ran the ball on us and they were able to throw on us,” said MSU head coach Donald Hill-Eley. “The defense plays much better than we did tonight. It was just a very bad night.”
“We didn't execute the plays that were called,” added senior defensive lineman Justin Lawrence. “We let the offense down and they put the points up. It's up to us to stop them. We didn't execute. We have to get that corrected.”
Domanick West carried the ball four times for 11 yards for the Bears. But it was the quality of those carries that helped the Bears stay in the game for a while. After NSU jumped on top 14-10 on Chris Bell's 33-yard touchdown reception from Brown, West bulled his way into the end zone from two yards out to put the Bears back on top 17-14 with 4:25 left in the first half.
“The offense has been improving, but we got to win as a team,” said Hill. “You got to have all three components with offense, defense and special teams. We didn't have all three (components) working together when we needed to.”
That was because just over two minutes later, NSU (5-4, 4-3 MEAC) struck back as Branche scored a touchdown on a two yard scamper with 2:13 left. That put the Spartans back on top for good at 21-17.
The Spartans defense held MSU to just two field goals the rest of the game. Branche hauled in a 16-yard touchdown pass from Brown with 11:14 left in the third quarter that pushed the Morgan deficit to 28-20.
The penalties against MSU proved to be disaster for the Bears again as their discipline seemed to unravel as the game went on. Out of nine penalties for the Bears overall, MSU had a couple of unsportsmanlike penalties that really hurt them at a pivotal time. Hill-Eley said of those penalties, “When you're in situations like this, we got to control our emotions. I think as the game went on, the guys lost their discipline going down the stretch. That's for me to fix. We got to get back in practice and make those corrections.”
The Bears travel to Orangeburg next week to face #10 South Carolina State who is currently undefeated in the MEAC at 6-0 and 8-1 overall.
