ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. – Senior wide receiver Lenwood Joyner tallied all of St. Augustine's touchdowns as the Falcons (1-3, CIAA 1-1) held off Elizabeth City State (1-2, CIAA 0-1), 24-17, in Roebuck Stadium.

In a game of punch and counterpunch, Joyner proved the difference, sandwiching a pair of touchdown receptions around a crucial 66-yard punt return to spoil the Viking's CIAA opener.  It was the first game in three weeks for ECSU which lost back-to-back league games (Winston-Salem State and Fayetteville State) to Hurricane Florence.

The Vikings came painfully short of tying the game in the final quarter.  After the ECSU defensive pinned the Falcons at their own 2-yardline, junior wide receiver Dajuan Greene picked up a bouncing punt at the St. Augustine's 32 and returned it through traffic to the 11.  A 10-yard run by freshman quarterback Kedrick Patterson set up the Vikings at the one, but an illegal procedure penalty was followed by a tipped-ball interception by freshman linebacker Joseph Harris Jr.  Sophomore defensive lineman Tyler Trexler deflected Patterson's pass over the middle to Harris who returned the pick-off to the 17.

Freshman quarterback John Darby IV helped drive the ball out to the Falcon 44 while burning 4:19 off the clock. ECSU never crossed midfield on its final two possessions.

"We made some mistakes.  We get ready to run a quarterback sneak to get it in and then we jumped offsides.  Then we set up another play and jumped offsides again," Viking Head Coach Anthony Jones said after the contest.

"Now we've got first and 10 from the 11 and we knew what they were going to do in that situation. They crowded the box. We knew they were going to blitz.  We had them.  Their kid makes a play and tips the ball, and the other kid makes the interception.  Of course, the quarterback gets the blame for it, but we've got to keep those hands down in the line.  If we do that, then we've got a kid that's wide open.  He (freshman quarterback Kedrick Patterson) made the right read, but we've just got to execute the play."

Joyner's 66-yard punt return with 1:20 left in the opening half gave the Falcons the lead for good at 14-7.  After getting to the right corner, he picked up two crisp open-field blocks and sprinted up the right side for the go-ahead score.

The teams exchanged scoring drives to make it 7-7.  On St. Augustine's first offensive play, senior wide receiver Desmond Smith got behind the Viking secondary for a 57-yard strike to the ECSU 16 yard-line. One rushing play and two penalties later, Darby found Joyner cutting to the right side of the end-zone for an 8-yard touchdown.

ECSU answered with 16-play, 73-yard drive capped by a 4-yard scoring pass from Patterson to Greene with 3:47 left in the period.  Patterson rolled right after finding his first options covered, found Greene in the right corner of the end-zone and fired a pass over the head of a Falcon defender for the tally.  Freshman kicker Jason Monastra's PAT kick knotted the score.

Monastra booted a 28-yard field goal with 58 seconds left before senior Sean Smith pushed the St. Augustine's margin back to seven at the half, 17-10, with a 24-yarder with just three seconds remaining.

Freshman wide receiver Zion Riddick (Ahoskie, NC) seemed to have put the Vikings on the board on the opening play of the game for the second straight home contest when he burst through the middle with the opening kickoff for an apparent touchdown.  But a holding call returned the ball to the ECSU 35.

"We returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and we get a big penalty.  That snatches the momentum right from us," Jones explaineded.  "Then they go down and score.  That's really like a 14-point swing."

The back-and-forth exchanges continued to open the second half.  The Falcons struck first when Joyner pulled in a short drag pattern in the middle of the field, outran the covering linebacker, cut to the left side and beat the Viking defensive backs to the left edge of the end-zone.

ECSU responded with a 6-play, 73-yard drive capped by a 24-yard scoring pass from Patterson to junior receiver Charles Davis to bring the Vikings back within a touchdown at 24-17 with over 11 minutes left in the third quarter, but that ended the scoring.

"We are down 17-10 at halftime and then they came out and scored to make it 14 to begin the second half.  We answered.  It showed that we have resilience.  We have character and we have pride.  We've just got to put it all together and stop making the mistakes that counter our resilience, our pride and our effort. We've got to understand that these penalties are a big, big deal," Jones stated.

"What I'd love to see us do is put together a good effort but be smart along with way.  Play a good, solid football game where the penalties and mistakes don't cost us the opportunity to win.

"I've got to keep taking the blame for that because this is my football team.  I'm in charge.  I've got to find a way to clean these things up."

Patterson completed 13 of 31 passes for 194 yards and a pair of touchdowns, but he was picked three times. Darby went 10 for 15 for 184 yards and two touchdowns. Joyner pulled in four passes for 54 yards and had a 21-yard kickoff return to add to his back-breaking 66-yard punt return.  Smith totaled 106 receiving yards on three catches.

Junior running back Gregory Bryan netted 46 yards rushing on nine carries for the Vikings while senior running back Chase Byrum added 38 yards on six touches.  Greene totaled 57 yards on three catches while sophomore wide receiver Brandon Joyner added 52 on three receptions.

Senior linebacker Miacah Cooper totaled eight tackles with a sack and a tackle for loss to lead the Viking defense which did not yield a point over the final 29 minutes of play.  Junior linebacker Lawrence Brown had seven tackles including two sacks. He also got in on three tackles in the backfield.  ECSU limited the visitors to 44 yards rushing and 228 total yards.

"We had a ton of penalties.  We outrushed them.  We had more first downs.  We ran more plays," Jones noted. "But they beat us in three categories besides the score.  They beat us in completion percentage. They beat us in the turnover battle.  And because we got a touchdown called back on a return and they did not, they beat us in the special teams battle."

Trexler spearheaded the Falcons' defense with three sacks and three tackles for a loss to go along with his game-saving pass deflection.  Harris, junior defensive back Roy Garris Jr. and sophomore defensive back Sidney Lawson had interceptions as St. Augustine's won the turnover battle, 4-0.

The Vikings visit Virginia State on Saturday at 2 p.m. for another CIAA clash while St. Augustine's is at Livingstone 1:30 p.m.

ECSU honored the late Sam Roebuck prior to kickoff.  The ECSU Athletic Hall of Fame inductee and former board of trustee member passed away in August.  The Vikings football stadium bears his name and he was a dedicated supporter of ECSU for half a century.  Viking players, coaches and administrators wore black wristbands to honor Roebuck.

ECSU coaches wore black armbands in recognition of the American Football Coaches Association's "Coach to the Cure Muscular Dystrophy" initiative.
 
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