Football Struggles in 11-8 Loss at Shaw
JCSU Sports Information
Box Score JCSU Struggles in 11-8 Loss at Shaw
Durham, N.C. (Oct. 22, 2016) – The Johnson C. Smith University football team managed only 129 yards of total offense and allowed Shaw to rush for 179 yards as the Bears took an 11-8 win over the Golden Bulls at Durham County Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
In the first quarter neither team could gain much traction offensively, as the Golden Bulls held strong on a fourth down conversion attempt when Rashad Burner brought down Rah Winston after a 1-yard pass to the JCSU 29-yard line.
From there the Golden Bulls took over but could not put together a sustained drive and was forced to punt. After a punt into a fierce wind, Shaw took over at their own 43-yard line. Seven plays later, The Bears got a 37-yard field goal from Beni Kinsemi to go up 3-0.
Shaw maintained the 3-0 lead into the latter stages of the second quarter. JCSU safetyÂ
Carlo Thomas (East Orange, N.J.) would put JCSU into great field position when he picked off his fifth pass of the season when he brought down a Timothy Abbott pass, returning it 18 yards to the Shaw 4-yard line at the 1:45 mark.
JCSU would make the Bears pay one play later when
Harold Herbin (Fayetteville, N.C.) found tight end
Randy Wiley (Columbia, S.C.) in the back of the end zone for a 4-yard touchdown strike. On the ensuing PAT attempt, Thomas took a bad snap and as he was being brought down by a host of Bear defenders, he flipped the ball upwards and kickerÂ
Brandon Howard (Columbia, S.C.) plucked it out of the air and followed his blockers into the endzone for an improbable two-point conversion to put JCSU up 8-3.
After the teams fought through extremely windy conditions and a scoreless third quarter, Shaw took advantage of a poor JCSU punt and took over at the Golden Bulls 19-yard line. Six plays later, the Bears would score when Uriah Bethea would plunge in from 2-yards out. The Bears then cashed in on the two-point conversion to make it 11-8 with 6:02 to play.
On the next JCSU possession, which started on their own 25,
Gabriel Yuille (Baltimore, Md.) raced 53-yards to bring the Golden Bulls to the Shaw 20 yard line. After two rushes from
Tromecio Summers (Charlotte, N.C.) brought it to the Shaw 17, a false start penalty pushed the Golden Bulls to the Shaw 22. An offside penalty on Shaw pushed JCSU back to the 17-yard line, then the Bears managed to stop JCSU for a 2-yard loss to bring up fourth down.
On fourth down, Howard lined up for the 36-yard field goal to tie the game, but his kick into the stiff wind sailed wide left.
Shaw could not salt the game away, as JCSU forced another punt and took over with 1:38 remaining, and after advancing to the Shaw 49, an incomplete pass on fourth down ended the JCSU hopes for a comeback.
Offensively, JCSU got 50 yards on the ground from freshman
Braxton Gambrell (Seneca, S.C.) while Yuille led the receiving corps with three catches for 27 yards.
Defensively, JCSU got 10 tackles each from defensive lineman
Rashad Burney (Macon, Ga.) and linebacker
David Francis (Pompano Beach, Fla.). Burney managed four tackles-for-loss while Francis was credited with two tackles-for-loss and one sack to go with a pass breakup.Â
Carlo Thomas had six tackles, all solo and an interception in the loss.
The loss drops the Golden Bulls to 1-7 overall, 1-4 in CIAA play and 0-3 in Southern Division play.
The Golden Bulls will return home for the annual homecoming game on Oct. 29 against St. Augustine's. Kickoff against the Falcons is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. from the Irwin
