FAYETTEVILLE, North Carolina -- With the final seconds ticking off the clock, Shaw University's
Darnell Evans strode down the sideline, slapping hands with each of his teammates, tears in his eyes. Seconds before, Evans had picked off his third pass of the afternoon and returned it for a touchdown to cement a Shaw comeback, giving the Bears a 44-34 win over Fayetteville State Saturday at Jeralds Stadium on the FSU campus.
Decked out in pink tape and wristbands in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Evans explained his emotion. "October's always a big month for me. My aunt passed away from breast cancer, so this month really means a lot to me."
He continued, "And I shook my team's hands - I love every single one of my teammates. They come to work every day - it's hot, it's raining. I just wanted to congratulate them because we did it as a team. Even though big players made big plays, that's football. We did it as a team."
The Bears, who improve to 3-3 on the season and pick up their first win - against two losses - in the CIAA, trailed 31-12 with 11:37 left in the third quarter, but outscored the Broncos 32-3 to close out the game - propelled in large part by Evans' play.
Without taking a snap on the offensive side of the ball, Evans amassed 293 total yards on kickoff, punt and interception returns. The Bears had 183 yards rushing and 167 through the air. In addition, Evans had six pass break ups.
After allowing the Bronco touchdown that gave FSU the 31-12 lead, the Bear defense shut down FSU, allowing them only two long drives -- one which resulted in a field goal, and one that closed out the game without a score.
"The defense is a second half team," said Evans. "Every time we get in that second half, we know it's over with. We get in the lock down - nothing's going down. I definitely felt the comeback coming. The offense moved the ball a little bit and that's all we needed them to do. And then we get our stops and that's it."
The offense did move the ball, although Evans' play often meant the Bears had a short field in front of them. Shaw had one drive of 50 yards in those last 26 minutes of game time - the rest were 42 yards or shorter.
"We've been in games in the second half and haven't had much offense," said Shaw head coach Robert Massey. "That was our goal - to be a lot more effective offensively. We wanted to stay away from the stupid penalties. We had a few, but in the end of the day we did what we needed to do."
Shaw fell behind early, trailing 17-0 with less than three minutes gone in the second quarter after Jemeryn Jenkins hit Kasunn Williams for a 76-yard touchdown pass.
Shaw responded with a long drive - a drive extended by a critical FSU roughing the passer penalty - that finished with a nine-yard strike from
Quinshon Odom to
David Jordan for the touchdown. The extra point sailed wide right to make the score 17-6 with 5:31 left in the half.
On the ensuing kickoff, the Broncos fumbled the ball and it was recovered by Shaw's
Paul Maple, giving Shaw a short field at the FSU 35. The Bears covered 25 of those yards before the drive stalled and
George Mulumba hit a field goal to trim the FSU lead to 17-9.
Jenkins then drove his team down the field, culminating with a 44-yard completion to Williams for a 24-9 lead with 1:21 left in the half.
Shaw started running a fast-paced offense - which they employed through much of the second half as well - with Odom making two critical completions to
Kowaski Kitchens of 18 and 17 yards to advance Shaw to the Bronco 13. Mulumba hit the field goal as time expired to send the teams to the locker room with Fayetteville State leading 24-12.
After a Shaw three-and-out to open the second half, Fayetteville State mounted a long drive largely on the back of a roughing the punter penalty. On the next play, Jenkins hit Antonio Allen for 42 yards, leaving only four to the goal line, which Marquavius Alston covered in a rush to give FSU the 31-12 lead.
After a 47-yard kickoff return by Evans on the ensuing kick, Shaw started at midfield and Odom and
Marquise Grizzle combined to move the Bears to the goal line, with Grizzle powering over the line for a one-yard touchdown run. The PAT was missed, leaving the Bears trailing 31-18.
On the third play of the next FSU drive, Jenkins put up a ball that Evans pulled down and returned for 18 yards, giving Shaw another short field. Marquise Grizzle then carried the ball five times in the drive for a total of 42 yards, but it was Odom who covered the last yard into the end zone to trim the FSU lead to 31-25.
The Bear defense drove Fayetteville State backwards on the Broncos' next possession, then Shaw's
Evan Strange blocked the punt, driving it through the end zone for a safety, narrowing the margin even further as the score now stood at 31-27 Fayetteville State.
On the ensuing free kick, Evans found a seam and broke open a 66-yard return, ending at the FSU nine-yard line. The Shaw offense stalled, but
Andres Magallon came in and knocked the field goal through, trimming the FSU lead to one at 31-30 with 23 seconds left in the third quarter.
On the second play in the next drive, Jenkins again found Evans. The Shaw DB returned it to the FSU four-yard line as the clock hit zero on the third quarter.
As the fourth quarter opened and with Shaw near the goal line, the Shaw kicking game again failed as Magallon sent the field goal attempt wide, leaving the score at 31-30 in favor of the Broncos.
The Broncos then responded with their longest drive of the game, covering 62 yards in 14 plays. But as Fayetteville State approached the Shaw goal line, the Bear defense stiffened and FSU was forced to take the Antonio Mayo field goal to extend their lead to 34-30.
Before the momentum could swing fully back to FSU, though, Evans had something more to say. His 68-yard return of the ensuing kickoff put the Bears deep in Bronco territory. Grizzle and Odom rushed their way through the 22 yards with Odom hitting a nine-yard run into the end zone to give Shaw their first lead of the game: 37-34.
The Shaw defense forced FSU to a three-and-out on their next possession, but the Shaw offense fizzled after 20 yards and punted back to Fayetteville.
On the third play of the FSU drive, Evans again read the route and picked off a Derek Bryant pass, this time returning it 27 yards for a touchdown.
"It was a blatant pass play," said Evans. "The defensive line pinned their ears back. They did a great job getting that pressure. It just makes it a field day for us DBs. I saw the quarterback open up and read his eyes - I'm not supposed to, I'm supposed to be on man, but I just made the play."
The TD gave the Bears a 44-34 lead with 1:01 left in the game.
Perhaps still celebrating the touchdown, the Shaw defense relaxed enough to allow the Broncos a 61-yard drive, but they did not allow a critical strike for a score as time ran out, giving Shaw the 44-34 win.
Grizzle finished the game with 134 yards on 28 carries. Odom finished 20 for 42 for 167 yards with three interceptions. Kitchens was the leading receiver with six receptions for 66 yards.
On defense,
Darius Moffett had seven solo tackles, including two tackles for a loss. Keith Lomon had six solo tackles. Evans finished with one solo tackle, six pass breakups, three interceptions, and 293 all-purpose yards. The three interceptions give him seven on the season.
For Fayetteville State, Jenkins finished with 303 yards on a 14 for 36 performance. He had two touchdowns. Colon B ailey and Jenkins were the leading rushers with 37 and 35 yards, respectively. Williams finished with three receptions for 128 yards and two touchdowns.
Defensively, the Broncos were led by Marquel Gathers with ten tackles - eight of them solo shots and four tackles for a loss. Rueben Ortega finished with seven solo hits.
Now that the Bears have collected their first conference win, Massey says they have to keep on the winning track going forward.
" We're treating every game like a playoff situation," he said. "Homecoming's next week and it's imperative we win that to stay alive."
The Bears' homecoming game is Saturday, October 19 when they host Livingstone. Kickoff is 2:00 p.m. at Durham County Memorial Stadium.
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