Eagles beat Rams 18-10

The broken record played on and on for Winston-Salem State.

The Rams played keep away again yesterday with four turnovers on their way to an 18-10 loss to rival N.C. Central in front of nearly 12,000 at Bowman Gray Stadium.

What made this one sting even more was 11 seniors went out on a losing note in what long ago turned into a season to forget. Both of the touchdowns the Eagles scored came after Rams' turnovers.

"Sure, this is tough but what can you do?" said linebacker Marcus Coates of the Rams. "We would have all liked to have gone out a winner, but we just couldn't do it."

The Eagles (3-7) won their first road game since beating Savannah State 30-14 back in October of 2007 and they did it with defense.

The Rams managed just 191 yards of offense and on their final drive late in the game were down to third-string quarterback Jean Julmiste. Starting quarterback Jarrett Dunston suffered a concussion in the first quarter and his backup, Branden Williams, suffered a sprained ankle in the second half. While Williams did get the ankle tapped and returned, he wasn't effective because he couldn't move very well outside the pocket.

Coach Kermit Blount of the Rams, whose team had five turnovers last week in a loss to Delaware State, watched his team fall to 1-9. The Rams lost their seventh straight home game and 10 of their last 11 at Bowman Gray.

"We can't seem to protect the ball," Blount said. "Two straight weeks we turned the ball over too many times. The story is to protect the football and we didn't do that again today."

The Eagles led 15-10 at halftime thanks to three turnovers by the Rams.

The most costly turnover was by Williams, who threw an interception near midfield with a minute left in the half. The interception by Rashad Fox was returned 49 yards.

One play later quarterback Michael Johnson hit fullback Saeed-Abdul Azeez for a 4-yard touchdown pass and a 15-10 lead for the Eagles after Frankie Cardelle missed his second straight extra point.

Williams had replaced Dunston in the first quarter after Dunston was sacked by Donald Laster. Dunston had to be helped off the field after suffering a concussion. Dunston sat on the bench for rest of the half with a towel over his head, and then stayed in the locker room for the second half.

Laster wound up also knocking out Williams in the second half as well. Laster was running out of quarterbacks to knock out of the game.

"It's always a rivalry playing Winston and it's always good to go beat them in their home," Laster said. "We got a lot of pressure on them in this game. Our defensive line did a great job of maintaining that pressure."

Both the Rams and the Eagles were without two key players, who happen to be graduates of North Forysth. Running back Ced Hickman of the Rams didn't dress for the game because of a nagging groin injury and Teryl White, the Eagles' best defensive lineman, has a shoulder injury that kept him out.

The Rams took a 3-0 lead thanks to Landen Thayer's 37-yard field goal. Cardelle tied it up with a 24-yard field goal.

Williams did have nice 11 yard touchdown pass to Omar Kizzie with 3:02 left in the half to make it 10-9 after Thayer's point-after attempt.

The only points in the second half came on a 26-yard field goal from Cardelle to make it 18-10 with 6:37 left in the game.

The Rams best chance to score in the second half came on first-down play from the Eagles 32 when Williams had Lamar Whidbee wide open down the middle of the field but overthrew him by about 10 yards.

Senior Wayne Noble, a defensive back who had a first-half interception for the Rams, said: "It was a lack of execution. It's the same thing every week. We work hard all week and look pretty good and then it just doesn't turn out the way we want it to."

Noble said losing in their final home game was tough to take.

"Being our last home game we wanted to come out on top," Noble said. "We put up a good fight against a good team like Central but we couldn't get it done."

Blount said that the seniors have been through a lot, starting with the transition years to Division I. That transition was halted in September, making this season even more difficult.

"They deserved to finish out with a bang, and I thought the way we started I thought it was going to be our day," Blount said. "We've got to grow up more as a team. You know Jarrett went down for us and we had some things happen to us."

Blount said that missing Hickman was also pivotal.

"We needed his pounding and just didn't have him available," Blount said. "But we still had opportunities."

As for how his team has lost seven straight at home Blount was at a loss as to why.

"It's hard to put your finger on it," he said.

The Rams will close their season Saturday at Norfolk State.

jdell@wsjournal.com

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