Cooper leads Winston-Salem State to CIAA football championship

DURHAM, North Carolina -- Nic Cooper scored three touchdowns and ran for 163 yards Saturday in leading unbeaten Winston-Salem State to a 38-13 victory over Elizabeth City State in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship game at Durham County Stadium.

Cooper, a senior and former Clinton High School star, scored on a 3-yard run in the first minute of the third quarter, a 1-yard dive later in the period and a 20-yard dash in the fourth period.  Quarterback Kameron Smith threw a touchdown pass to Tehvyn Brantley. Smith completed 12 passes for 111 yards.

Defensive back Alton Keaton, a former Douglas Byrd High star, led the Rams with seven tackles, including a sack. He also recovered a fumble. Keaton was named CIAA Defensive Player of the Year earlier. The CIAA championship was the first for the Rams since 1978.

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Rams return to glory

DURHAM, North Carolina -- It had been 11 long years since the last CIAA title, but Winston-Salem State was very comfortable on center stage Saturday in front of about 10,000 fans at Durham County Stadium. WSSU defeated Elizabeth City State 38-18 to win the school's ninth football title.

"Our theme is 'Return to Glory,' and we are back to those glory days and back to winning rings," coach Connell Maynor said. "We are back to winning championships…."

The Rams won the championship with a tough defense that put the clamps on running back Daronte McNeill and an offense that produced when it mattered most.  The Rams (11-0) held the Vikings (8-3) to a season-low 210 yards, and Nic Cooper ran for 163 yards on 24 carries and scored on a 20-yard run midway through the fourth quarter to ice the Rams' victory.

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Will Harris: ECSU football has come a long way

Elizabeth City, North Carolina -- It’s been a crazy few weeks here with the end of fall sports and winter teams getting started. Because of that, time and space has been kind of limited, so I guess we have some catching up to do.

But first let’s start with the Elizabeth City State football team, which lost to Winston-Salem State 38-18 in the CIAA title game Saturday.

One of these days the Vikings are going to break through, but this just wasn’t the year. Seems like every time ECSU gets this far, its runs into a team with a little more to play for. Each of the three CIAA championship losses have been to teams that were ranked pretty high in the national polls and had legitimate shots at moving on the Division II playoffs. Not that the Vikings couldn’t have taken that mantle in any of those years, but the power of the opposition has been pretty large ...

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