The Morgan state Bears came back from a 24-3 deficit in a major comeback win in overtime against one of their MEAC conference rivals the Norfolk state Spartans, leaving the final score to 38-37. The Bears are now 1-1 in their conference.
As the fourth quarter began, Norfolk found themselves ahead 24-21. Sophomore kicker Grandin Willcox had his field goal attempt blocked by senior cornerback Bryan Stukes which was recovered by redshirt junior Jaden Carter, returning it for a 66-yard touchdown to put the Bears up 28-24.
“I saw the ball in the air and I said I need this, on the jumbotron I saw nobody was behind me so I just said I’m gone,” said Carter.
The Spartans did not go down without a fight as they would with a score of their own. Sophomore quarterback Jalen Daniels found Sophomore wide receiver Elyjah Mitchell midway into the fourth quarter giving them the lead of 31-28.
Redshirt freshmen Sahr Gbundema had his first collegiate start as kicker in Saturday’s game and went 2 for 3, his 47 yard field goal sent this game into overtime as the score was knotted at 31-31.
“It feels great, I’m just happy I got the win for the team and I’m just doing what I do,” said Gbundema.
Coach Wilson gave his gratitude for Gbundema and said this is a time where preparation came to meet opportunity for his young player.
“He gave us a chance to win the game today…definitely the MVP of the game,” said Wilson.
The Bears’ took a shot on the first play of overtime as sophomore quarterback Tahj Smith found Redshirt sophomore and Temple transfer Jaden Coffen for a 25 yard touchdown pass which would ignite the Morgan crowd on his second catch of the season.
“It’s crazy, I worked hard to get back to this point, just love my teammates, they trust me to make a play,” said Coffen.
The Bears had trouble with holding onto the ball early in the game, Redshirt junior Duce Taylor fumbled the ball 3 times resulting in the Spartans building a 24-3 lead early in the second quarter.
Smith took over for Morgan following the third fumble and conducted a 16 play, 75 yard drive. Getting the ball to Redshirt freshman Running back Jason Collins resulted in a touchdown that gave the Bears back some momentum making the score 24-10 with 2:35 left in the first half.
As the Morgan offense limited their turnovers through the rest of the game the defense benefitted as well. The Bear’s defense went from allowing 24 points in the first half to only 13 through the second half and overtime.
After giving up the final touchdown of the game to junior running back X’zavion Evans from two yards out they would have to line up for one more stop as Norfolk would line up to go for two. In the final play of the game Jalen Daniels’ pass would fall incomplete into the back right corner of the endzone giving Morgan the win.
Defensive lineman Elijah Williams lead the defense with 6 tackles and a sack on the day, he is now Morgan’s all time sack leader with 29 career sacks.
“It’s an amazing feeling, all the hard work is paying off but we still got more games to play… football just flows you just got to go with the flow” said Williams.
Although the Bears won this game, coach Wilson is still looking to fix key mistakes that made this game harder than it needed to be and gave his gratitude towards the team’s ability to pull off a comeback win.
“That’s something we talked about… it’s not on me it’s on them, this team will go as far as our leadership takes them… as long as they continue to make the plays we should be straight,” said Wilson.
