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WSSU rolls past Howard for first win of the season
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Published: October 4, 2008
Winston-Salem State took out a season's worth of frustration on Saturday night with a 34-10 win over Howard at Bowman Gray Stadium.
After going 0-4 and struggling at every turn the Rams finally won their first game of the season and they did it in convincing fashion. The Bison fell to 1-4 and couldn't match the Rams where it mattered most, in the trenches.
The Rams' offensive line has been much maligned all season, but it controlled the line of scrimmage early and never let up.
The Rams were clicking on offense early with two straight touchdowns for a 14-0 lead.
Fullback Devven Sutton, a Virginia Tech transfer who was a defensive lineman for the Rams last season, caught a 7-yard touchdown from quarterback Jarrett Dunston.
On their next possession Sutton, who was moved to fullback earlier this season, scored again on a 1-yard touchdown for a 14-0 lead with 1:26 to go in the first quarter.
The Bison finally got its offense going late in the first quarter by going on a 16-play drive that ended when wide receiver Brandon Sherman, a former player at Parkland, caught a 4-yard touchdown to make it 14-7. Sherman, a junior playing in his hometown for the last time, then got a little over excited and ran to the 50-yard line while pounding on his chest.
The Rams came right back when Bryant Bayne caught a 45-yard touchdown from Dunston for a 21-7 lead after Adnan Kljajic made the point-after attempt. Bayne, however, would later suffer a broken ankle on a catch late in the first half and is likely lost for the season.
The Rams had another chance to score before the half. Bayne's catch on the play he broke his ankle on from 48 yards moved the ball to the Bison 9 with 28 seconds to go. Two plays later, however, Dunston threw his sixth interception of the season when Martin Decembert stepped in front of Dominique Fitzgerald in the end zone with four seconds left.
In the second half the Rams took a 28-7 lead after the Bison committed a key turnover. Quarterback Floyd Haigler was intercepted by Ty Scott at the Rams' 5 and Scott made a nice return of 25 yards. From there the Rams went six plays with Dunston scoring from 41-yards out.
On the scoring play Dunston made a nice fake to running back Rod Fluellen and Dunston went around the left side, found an opening and broke two tackles along the way.
The Bison cut it to 28-10 with 12:04 left in the game on a 38-yard field goal from John Mendoza.
The Rams added a late touchdown when DeRon Middleton stepped in front of wide receiver Willie Carter for an interception and returned it 81 yards to make it 34-10 with 6:24 left.
Middleton, a senior from Parkland who had been playing mostly special teams through the first four games, saw a lot of playing time on Saturday night because of the pass-happy Bison.
The Rams had scored just 45 points all season heading into Saturday's game, but the offense came alive thanks to Dunston, a redshirt junior who had his career-best game.
Dunston wound up 11 of 16 passing for a career-best 248 yards and two touchdowns against just one interception. He also rushed nine times for 47 yards with one touchdown.
Defensively the Rams did a decent job against the Bison's offense led by Josh Newkirk, who had two sacks. The Rams had a season-high three interceptions as defensive coordinator Mike Ketchum had six and sometimes seven defensive backs. Also picking up an interception was Alex Chandler, who made a nice play in the end zone with 3:26 left to go.
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