Final Stats

ELIZABETH CITY, NC-Virginia State University rallied from a nine point deficit over the final fifteen minutes of play to squeeze out a 24-23 win over Elizabeth City State University Saturday afternoon at Roebuck Stadium.

After Daquan Neal connected with Montario Hunter on an 81 yard touchdown, the Vikings held a 23-14 advantage with 5:59 left in the third quarter. The Trojans then orchestrated a 12 play, 75 yard drive, capped with a 1-yard TD by Kavon Bellamy to pull VSU within two (23-21) with 20 seconds left in the third quarter.

On the first play of the Vikings' ensuing drive, a Ronald Gray fumble was recovered by Virginia State's Jonathan Pearson at the ECSU 30 yard line. VSU's next drive carried over into the final quarter where the Viking defense held them to just five yards on four plays from scrimmage.

Matthew Hillquist drilled a field goal (14:06 left in the game) from 42 yards out to give VSU their first lead since late in the second quarter.

The Vikings lost 3 of 6 fumbles on the day but defensively held the Trojans to the Hillquist field goal and still had a shot to pull out a victory in regulation. Defensively the Vikings were again paced by Stephen Williams who finished with a game high 17 tackles while teammate Darren Wilson went for 10 stops on the afternoon.

Senior Justin Beatty got his third interception in as many games, picking off Tarian Ayres and returning the ball 9 yards to the VSU 26. That turnover set up ECSU's first score of the day in the second quarter. ECSU got three more cracks on offense over the final 13:38 of the contest. Over that span the Viking defense held two Virginia State drives to a combined 38 yards on 13 plays. Facing fourth and two, the Trojans attempted to ice the game but was turned back when Bellamy was tackled for no gain at the ECSU 15 and the Vikings took over with 1:49 left in regulation.

With no timeouts left the Vikings ran 12 plays down to the VSU 31 yard line, setting up a 48 yard field goal attempt with 9 ticks left. Jeff Flores' attempt was in direct line but Saturday's windy conditions just stingy enough for the ball to fall just short of the crossbar.

Kicking the same direction, Flores nailed a 42 yarder as the first half expired to give the Vikings a 16-14 lead at the intermission.

The Trojans (4-2, CIAA 2-1) took only one play and just 24 seconds into the game, on a 74 yard bomb from Tarian Ayres to Javion Smallwood for 7-0 lead. That score would hold until the 7:20 mark of the second quarter on a 10 yard scoring run by Daquan Neal. The difference in the final score proved to be the extra point that would have tied the game at 7 but the point after attempt was blocked by the Trojans' TyVaughan Kirby-Johnson.

Facing fourth down and nine, the Vikings went in front 13-7 on a 34 yard TD catch and run by Lovie Banks-Rose, Jr . The Trojans countered with 1:49 left in the first half on Trenton Cannon's acrobatic 26 yard rushing touchdown.

ECSU (3-2, CIAA 1-2) will return to action for Homecoming 2015 against Lincoln University on Saturday October 17. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:30pm.