Orangeburg, South Carolina -- As the Florida A&M football team began to gather for its postgame huddle with coach Joe Taylor, he did a right about-turn. Taylor led the way as the team rushed to the side where its band was playing. They had earned the right to celebrate Saturday afternoon at Oliver Dawson Stadium by defeating South Carolina State, 27-24.
A defensive stance unlike any that the Rattlers have shown all season limited the Bulldogs to 178 yards of rushing and just another 121 passing. FAMU capped off a fourth-quarter comeback with two rushing touchdown by LaVante Page and shut the door for good with a fake punt during the closing minutes.
South Carolina State coach Buddy Pough said he was considering possible plays for his Bulldogs team when FAMU struck with the fake.
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FAMU executes when it matters
ORANGEBURG, S.C. — Florida A&M made its running plays count when it mattered most Saturday afternoon, although it managed fewer than 150 yards on the ground against South Carolina State.
The Rattlers ran the ball a total of 13 times during a fourth-quarter comeback in front of 17,153 in attendance. Both times FAMU got in the red zone, LaVante Page was the one who punched it in to secure a 27-24 victory. The win ended an eight-game losing streak for FAMU against SCSU, and also snapped a two-game home winning streak for the Bulldogs.
"It was just execution and the line blocking," said Page. "We executed."
SCSU came into the game with the third-best rushing attack in the MEAC. But while it won the battle on the ground (178 yards to 142 for FAMU), the Bulldogs didn't get the production that usually comes out of their backfield.
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Is the MEAC catching up to the Bulldogs?
Orangeburg, S.C. - Buddy Pough paused for a moment. With a small band of reporters in front of him, he gathered what he had just been told - Howard knocked off North Carolina A&T, the MEAC's only undefeated team - silently.
A win would have kept the Bulldogs in the battle for the conference heading down the stretch.
For the past three seasons, Pough's team has at least shared the MEAC title. But, as he heard the news, Pough was the head coach of a team that had freshly squandered a 24-13 third-quarter lead, surrendering two Florida A&M touchdowns in the fourth quarter to slide back into the peripheral of the conference-title race.
Finally, Pough spoke.
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MEAC standings grow more cluttered
ORANGEBURG, S.C. — No one saw this coming — Norfolk State leading the standings with a month left in the season. North Carolina A&T going undefeated in conference play through its first three games didn't even seem like a possibility.
That's what has transpired, though, and at a point when there should be some kind of clear-cut indication which team will win the MEAC title, things just keep getting cloudier. That's in part to Bethune-Cookman (4-3, 2-1) stunning NSU (6-2, 4-1) on Thursday night, which allowed the Aggies to take a 3-0 conference record into their game against Howard on Saturday.
That ended after two overtimes with Howard (4-4, 3-2) winning its homecoming game 35-28 over the Aggies (4-3, 3-1). A few days before Florida A&M (5-3, 3-2) hooked up with South Carolina State (4-4, 3-2), Bulldogs coach Buddy Pough was trying to put the unexpected occurrences into perspective.
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