ATLANTA, Ga. – The Benedict College Tigers turned the ball over four times and gave up four touchdowns of more than 50 yards as the Morehouse College Maroon Tigers took a 42-10 victory on Saturday at B.T. Harvey Stadium on the campus of Morehouse.
The loss dropped the Tigers to 0-8 on the season and 0-3 in the SIAC. Morehouse improves to 4-4 overall and 2-1 in the SIAC.
"It's kind of hard to put into words this game. I thought this might have been the worst," Benedict head coach
Mike White said. "After putting 10 quick points on the board, that's about as bad as you can play as far as giving up plays. It didn't even look right. I'm just disappointed in the trick plays."
Benedict took an early 10-0 lead in the first quarter, but the excitement after
Okechi Ntiasagwe's 11-yard touchdown pass from
Kalu Onumah was short lived, as Morehouse's Amyr Smith took the ensuing kickoff from the goal line and raced 100 yards down the right sideline for Morehouse's first big score of the game. On the first play of the second quarter, Smith came up with another big play for the Maroon Tigers. He caught a lateral pass then threw a pass to a streaking Devon Mann down the left sideline for an 80-yard touchdown pass to give the Maroon Tigers a 14-10 lead. With the Maroon Tigers facing a third-and 13 later in the quarter, Smith caught a pass from Kivon Taylor, slipped around the Benedict defender, and raced 52-yards for the score to give the Maroon Tigers a 21-10 lead at the half.
"There were a lot of bad plays we made," White said. "I was disappointed we gave up the return. Then we gave up that little halfback pass outside. Then we missed a tackle. Other than that, it wasn't a bad first half defensively. But we've still got the same things coming back to bite us. It's back to the drawing board and see if we can do a little better next week."
The Tigers forced Morehouse to punt on the first series of the second half, but Benedict fumbled the catch and Morehouse recovered at the Benedict 11-yard line. Two plays later, Nikolys Baker ran in from two-yards out for the score and a 28-10 lead.
After Benedict punted the ball back to Morehouse, the Tigers were pinned back to their 15-yard line. After a penalty pushed them back five yards to the 10-yard line, Cameron Fields found a gap on the left side and ran 90 yards for a touchdown.
The Maroon Tigers added another short touchdown run to start the fourth quarter to make it 42-10, then later fumbled the ball at the Benedict goal line.
Tyrell Best-Savage scooped up the loose ball in the end zone and returned it 68 yards. The Benedict defense also blocked a Morehouse field goal in the second quarter.
Benedict started the game with promise as Morehouse's Joshua Jasper fumbled on the Maroon Tigers' opening series, giving the Tigers a first-and-goal at the 9-yard line. Benedict couldn't get the ball into the end zone, and settled for a 29-yard field goal by
Tory Mimbs.
On Benedict's next possession,
Macathy Briere picked up 38 yards on his first three carries and Onumah had a 26-yard pass completion to
Dion Hamilton. After getting to the 11-yard line, Onumah found Ntiasagwe near the goal line. With a nice second effort, he lunged into the end zone for a touchdown and a 10-0 Benedict lead with 2:26 left in the first quarter.
After that, the Maroon Tigers were able to take advantage of Benedict's depleted roster. The Tigers were playing without two leaders on the defense – safety
Edward Kirkland and linebacker
Kelvin McCollum.
"We kind of missed Kirkland in the secondary, who makes all our calls, and it showed," White said. "And McCollum, and it just kind of compounds itself. You're putting a guy in, and he's got to make calls and he's a freshman. It's just going to take time."
The Tigers finished with 188 yards of total offense, compared to 429 for the Maroon Tigers. Briere finished with 93 yards rushing.
Arkivious Reeder led the Benedict defense with eight tackles.
The Tigers are on the road again next week to take on the Albany State Golden Rams at 2 p.m.