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NORFOLK, Va. — DeAngelo Branche (Norfolk, Va.) rushed 30 times for a career-high 180 yards to earn Norfolk State MVP honors, and the Spartans' defense forced four turnovers as the Spartans held on for a 27-21 win over North Carolina A&T in the MEAC opener for both teams on Saturday afternoon at the 61st annual Fish Bowl Classic at Dick Price Stadium.
NSU (2-1, 1-0 MEAC) jumped out to a 24-7 halftime lead and held on to break the Aggies' two-game win streak before a crowd of 12,632 fans.
NSU got on the board first. A bad snap from center sailed over A&T punter Lee Woodson's head on the Aggies' second possession. Spartan freshman Ricardo Volcin (North Miami Beach, Fla.) recovered the fumble in the end zone for an NSU touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
The Aggies (2-1, 0-1) quickly tied the game with a nine-play, 85-yard drive. Michael Ferguson, the Aggies' MVP, capped it with a 3-yard TD run to tie the game with 1:14 left in the first quarter.
NSU took the lead for good early in the second quarter. Safety Josh Anderson (Chesapeake, Va.) forced a fumble by Ferguson, which fellow linebacker Anthony Taylor (Virginia Beach, Va.) recovered at the A&T 17. Two plays later, freshman Takeem Hedgeman (Charlottesville, Va.) scored his first career touchdown on a 6-yard run with 13:52 remaining in the half.
Spartan cornerback Don Carey (Norfolk, Va.) intercepted a deep pass from A&T quarterback Herb Miller on the next Aggie possession. Eight plays and 42 yards later, Justin Castellat (Virginia Beach, Va.) kicked a career-long 43-yard field goal for a 17-7 NSU lead with 10:22 left in the half.
NSU capped its first-half scoring with an 11-play, 99-yard drive just before the half. Dennis Brown (Miami, Fla.) ended the march with a 22-yard TD pass to Dario Walker (Ettrick, Va.) with 1:00 left before the half.
The Spartans had all the momentum and appeared ready to blow the game open when Dwight Fluker-Berry (Miami, Fla.) returned the third-quarter kickoff 64 yards to the Aggie 21. But the A&T defense held, limiting the Spartans to a 33-yard field goal by Castellat that gave the Spartans a 27-7 lead.
A&T slowly rallied behind backup quarterback Carlton Fears. He tossed a 17-yard touchdown pass to Giorgio Lowrance to cut the lead to 27-14 with 5:16 remaining in the third quarter.
Aggie defensive lineman Tyre Glasper recovered a Brown fumble on the ensuing possession, setting A&T up at the Spartans' 41. Fears hit Lowrance for a 36-yard completion inside the NSU 10. Three plays later, Ferguson scored from 1 yard out to cut the Spartans' lead to 27-21 with 1:56 left in the third quarter.
But the NSU defense stiffened in the fourth quarter. The Spartans held A&T without a first down in the final stanza, forcing two punts and gaining a turnover on downs with 2:29 left to seal the win.
Branche did the rest, grinding the clock down en route to his career night. He finished with his second career 100-yard game and the first since his freshman season, when he ran for 105 yards at Hampton.
Ferguson finished with 25 carries for 124 yards, and Lowrance had six catches for 115 yards. But the NSU defense held the Aggies to 294 total yards, registering 10 stops behind the line of scrimmage, including three sacks.
Anderson led NSU with 10 tackles, three for loss. Taylor, who got his first career start, and had nine tackles, a sack, one pass breakup, two QB hurries and a recovered fumble. Lineman Ray Jennings (Chesapeake, Va.) added three tackles for loss, and Terrell Whitehead (Virginia Beach, Va.) had a career-best four pass deflections.
“Well, we won it in typical fashion for us,” NSU head coach Pete Adrian said. “We like to make it interesting, I guess. But I was happy with how the defense played in the fourth quarter. We had our backs against the wall but we came out on top. We're still a pretty young team, and this builds character.”
NSU steps out of MEAC play next week when it travels to Williamsburg to face William & Mary for just the third time ever. Kickoff from Zable Stadium is at 7 p.m.
