Delaware State Survives Morgan State’s Comeback to Secure 14-12 Victory

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The Delaware State University’s football team earned its seventh win of the season on Friday with a nail-biting 14-12 victory over the Morgan State Bears.

The standout in this game for DSU was running back James Jones, who rushed for 115 yards on 13 carries with one touchdown.

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Delaware State leads by seven at the end of the first quarter.

The Hornets opened the game with the ball and didn’t waste any time finding the endzone as they drove 79 yards in two plays, with Junior running back James Jones blasting off for a 68-yard touchdown run to put the team up 7-0 with 14:12 left in the opening quarter.

Morgan State scored on its first drive of the game, with a time-consuming possession that lasted four minutes and 14 seconds. The team executed a ten-play, 41-yard drive, which concluded with a successful 37-yard field goal, narrowing the deficit to 7-3.

The Hornets lead by 11 at the end of the first half.

DSU’s next scoring drive came in the late first quarter/early second, but the team was set up nicely on this possession when senior linebacker Na”Shawn Briggs recovered the Bears’ fumble and took it to Morgan State’s 28-yard line.

Delaware State didn’t waste the short field as they went 28 yards on six plays to end with running back James Jones fumbling the ball on third and two on the Bears ‘ yard line. But lucky for Jones, his offensive lineman Amori Francis recovered the ball in the endzone for the touchdown to give the Hornets a 14-3 lead with 14:54 left in the opening half.

DSU’s next four possessions weren’t so great as they had two punts, an interception, and headed into halftime missing a 36-yard field goal.

DSU hangs on to win 14-12!

Delaware State did not start the second half off well, as their first two drives ended in a punt and then an interception.

The interception set up Morgan State at the Hornets’ 20-yard line. While they couldn’t score a touchdown on the play, they managed to drive all the way to Delaware State University’s two-yard line before stalling. However, the Bears salvaged the drive by kicking a 19-yard field goal, narrowing the lead to 14-6 with 3:14 remaining in the third quarter.

Morgan continued their climb back in the game when, in the early minutes of the fourth quarter, their running back, Randall Naude, rushed for 67 yards for the touchdown to slice the deficit to two points (14-12) with 14:50 left in the game.

Two possessions later, the Bears would be driving again as they went 37 yards in seven plays to only stall out at DSU’s 42-yard line and had to punt that ball away. They also drained four minutes and 25 seconds off the clock during that time.

After a strong three-and-out from Morgan State’s defense, their offense failed to put points on the board. Instead, on the third play on their drive, the Bears fumbled the ball, and sophomore linebacker Brian Bates recovered it and took it to the Hornets’ 44-yard line with 4:43 left in the game.

Delaware State’s offense didn’t score, but with 1:55 left in the fourth quarter, it gave Morgan State one last chance to get a comeback win over the Hornets.

The Bears started this drive from their own 18-yard line and pushed the ball all the way to DSU’s 28 with two seconds left in the game. Morgan State’s kicker, Alex Amaya, lined up for the game-winning 45-yard field goal, and his kick sailed wide as time expired for the Hornets to hang on to win 14-12.

Team Stats

Team Stats
1st Downs	13	16
3rd down efficiency	4-14	3-14
4th down efficiency	1-2	0-1
Total Yards	283	285
Passing	169	112
Comp/Att	16/25	10/24
Yards per pass	6.8	4.7
Interceptions thrown	2	0
Rushing	114	173
Rushing Attempts	37	38
Yards per rush	3.1	4.6
Penalties	5-45	4-30
Turnovers	2	2
Fumbles lost	0	2
Interceptions thrown	2	0
Possession	31:59	28:01