ATLANTA, Ga. – The Benedict Tigers used a strong defensive effort to hold the Morehouse Maroon Tigers to negative 28 yards rushing and took a 21-5 victory in a SIAC football contest on Saturday from B.T. Harvey Stadium.
The Tigers used a big fourth-down stop in the third quarter to get the ball, and drove 64 yards to score a touchdown and pull away from a close, defensive struggle. Benedict used an 11-yard run by quarterback Charles “Tre” Simmons on a fourth-and-one to keep the drive alive, and then Simmons later found 6-foot-4 receiver Malik Mullins for a 12-yard touchdown with 16 seconds left in the third quarter to give Benedict a 14-5 lead.
“The defense did a good job of stopping them on fourth down, and we went for it on fourth down and made a big play and then it turned into a touchdown,” said Benedict head coach Ron Dickerson Jr.
“We had seen a little weakness in their blitz, so we decided to use one of our bigger receivers and throw the ball up to Malik Mullins. We tried to do it earlier in the game, but their guy broke it up, so we came back at them and he did a great job of reaching up over the guy and making a touchdown, which gave us a little buffer to figure out offensively what we needed to do to keep us in this game.”
The defense came up with another big play in the fourth quarter. Morehouse had the ball near midfield, when Josh Modupe sacked Morehouse quarterback Khamar Carlisle, who fumbled. Aaron Miller returned the fumble 22 yards. Two plays later, Simmons threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Tyrique Carter, giving Benedict a 21-5 lead.
“I’ll take a win, and it was a good win. Their defense was really, really good because they did something that we haven’t seen in the first three weeks,” Dickerson said. “They played a three-down front and they brought blitzes from all different areas. What I’m really pleased about is the special teams did a lot better after being challenged and the defense really stepped up against a team that played Howard really well, it was a big challenge for us.”
Benedict moves to 2-2 overall and 2-1 in the SIAC. Morehouse is now 1-4 overall and 0-2 in the SIAC.
Morehouse opened the scoring with a 32-yard first quarter field goal. Benedict drove the field, getting a key 29-yard pickup by Simmons on third down. Damian Moate scored on a five-yard run to give Benedict a 7-3 lead, which remained the score at the half.
In the third quarter, Morehouse was driving in Benedict territory when George “Geo” Jallah intercepted at the five-yard line. One play later, Morehouse tackled Zavien Foster in the end zone for a safety to make it 7-5.
Benedict finished the game recording six sacks on a pair of Morehouse quarterbacks for negative 49 yards. Israel Nwokocha led the defense with seven total tackles, three sacks for -26 yards and one forced fumble. Miller had six tackles, 1 ½ tackles for loss, one sack and one fumble recovery.
“The defensive coaches really challenged the defense to be coachable, play together and do the little things, and that helped us when we sputtered on offense this week. (Nwokacha) played a great game. His family was here, and he did what he’s capable of doing, and I appreciate the young man taking the coaching and going out there and having a great day.”
Benedict is back home next week, hosting North Greenville University in a non-conference game at 3 p.m.