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Rams fall to Hornets 24-21
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Published: November 7, 2009
A comedy of errors in the first half was too much to overcome for Winston-Salem State on Saturday afternoon at Bowman Gray Stadium.
The Rams had five turnovers on their way to losing 24-21 to upstart Delaware State.
It was another dagger in a forgetful season for the Rams, who fell to 1-8 as Coach Kermit Blount had little to say afterward.
"We keep giving them away," Blount said about the latest loss. "I think we turned it over four or five times in the first half and you can't do that. There's nothing else to say."
Despite falling behind 24-7 at halftime the Rams managed to make it closer thanks to two touchdown passes from quarterback Jarrett Dunston. The first one went to Dominique Fitzgerald from 6 yards and the second was 16 yards to Omar Kizzie with 5:24 left in the game.
After Landen Thayer's point-after attempt was good, the lead was cut to 24-21.
The Hornets (2-6) got the ball back and were seemingly stalled on fourth down and forced to punt near midfield with 3:31 to play. But a roughing the punter penalty on Jared Mitchell gave the ball back to the Hornets and they kept it the rest of the game.
"I have to look at that on film," Blount said about Mitchell's penalty. "That was a big play, but even at that point if we would have played better in the first half we wouldn't have been in that position."
The Rams also had a good chance to score early in the fourth quarter but Thayer's 42-yard field-goal attempt banged off the goal post and was no good.
"It's beyond frustration," Fitzgerald said about the losing. "We try to over look the past game that we've lost and try to stay positive and look ahead."
Among the five turnovers in the first half, the Hornets scored 17 points off them including a 21-yard fumble recovery by Jerome Strums that made it 10-0. On that play Dunston made a poor pitch on an option play to running back John Harris.
Trying to spark the offense Blount alternated Jarrett and Branden Williams at quarterback. Williams did have a touchdown pass in the first half to Fitzgerald but he also had two interceptions.
"You can't do too much when the other team has the ball all the time," Fitzgerald said about the turnovers. "That's something we have to correct next week."
The Hornets, who are down to their last scholarship running back in Jaashawn Jones because of injuries, used him effectively as he rumbled to 143 yards on 35 carries with one touchdown.
Coach Al Lavan of the Hornets said: "We're happy to get an ugly win, but it was beautiful."
Lavan said he was surprised that the Rams had that many turnovers. "They usually don't have five turnovers in five games," he said.
The Rams have lost six straight at home and 10 of their last 11 at Bowman Gray Stadium.
"We are a family and we have to go through the adversity together," Fitzgerald said about the rest of the season.
Blount said he'll try to get his team to be positive this week in practice.
"Nothing has come easy for us this year," Blount said.
The Rams shut out the Hornets in the second half, but that was of little consolation to Blount.
"We turned the ball over and they had 17 points off turnovers," Blount said. "We shut him down in the second half and we should have played like that in the first half."
The Rams will play their final home game of the season on Saturday at 1 p.m. against N.C. Central.
"You just try to keep it positive and keep them motivated," Blount said about getting back to the practice field on Monday.
Fitzgerald said that Blount told the Rams in the locker room after the game to keep things positive.
"He just told us it was hard loss because we had a terrible first half," Fitzgerald said. "We came back and fought in the second half but just came up short. We just have to come back to work on Monday."
One of the bright spots was the passing game with Dunston and Williams combining to three touchdown passes. They combined to go 10 of 20 for 124 yards with Williams throwing the two interceptions.
"We've been improving a little bit on the passing game the last couple of weeks and we've been trying to step up and make plays," Fitzgerald said. "When we are presented with them we're trying to make the plays."
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