By T. Scott Boatright
Tricks and treats.
In what was at times a seemingly Halloween-themed game, Grambling State held off Bethune-Cookman 28-14 Saturday on Harris-Williams Field at Eddie G. Robinson Stadium.
GSU coach Hue Jackson, who saw his team snap a two-game losing skid, admitted to having some fearful premonitions before the game started.
I told our guys before the game that I just didn’t like our — to me — our focus and exactly where we were,” Jackson said. “And it showed. When you have that feeling as a coach you try to get it turned as fast as you can and I’m glad we were able to get that done.
“The most important thing is that we won. We get to go back to practice and get better.”
The wild and weird contest featured half the game’s combined score coming on defensive touchdowns with the first coming in the opening moments on arguably the most outlandish play of the game.
On the opening drive of the contest, Bethune-Cookman went for it on a fourth-and-one situation at their own 31-yard line.
Moore disappeared into a pile of players from both teams right near the line of scrimmage as the scrum moved back and forth with no whistle being called.
Suddenly the ball popped up into the air out of that mass of humanity before Wildcats receiver Tink Boyd snatched it out of midair and took off for the goal line, racing 52 yards for the score that put Bethune-Cookman on top 7-0 only 1:37 into the contest.
But Grambling had a trick of its own that provided a treat for fans less than two minutes later after a shotgun snap to Bethune-Cookman quarterback Tylik Bethea, making his first career start, sailed over his head into the BCU end zone.
As players from both teams scrambled into another mass trying to get to the football, Grambling ended up with the recovery that tied the contest at 7-7 at the 11:55 mark of the opening stanza.
Grambling moved out on top on its next possession with a three-yard scoring scamper set up by Chance Williams set up with his own 23-yard run and a 33-yard pass from quarterback Myles Crawley to receiver Javon Robinson.
That was followed by a series of three-and-outs by booths teams until the waning seconds of the first quarter, when Williams broke loose on a 63-yard touchdown run that pushed GSU’s to 21-7 with only 10.8 seconds remaining until the second quarter.
But this time it was Bethune-Cookman which quickly countered as the football was stripped from Grambling running back Floyd Chalk IV with the Wildcats’ Omari Hill-Robinson scooping it up and returning it 73 yards for a score that cut the Tigers’ lead to 21-14 at the 10:25 mark of the second quarter.
The rest of the first half was a defensive slugfest with Grambling’s effort aided by a strong performance by punter Jimmy Iles, who got a pair of punts to bite and be downed inside the Bethune-Cookman 2-yard line.
As the second half began, ghosts got into the machine and delayed the start of the third quarter until play eventually began after it was determined the public address would not function for the remainder of the contest.
Those ghosts in the machine came back into play early in the fourth quarter as the scoreboard malfunctioned with 10:15 remaining in the game as GSU defensive back Trent Henry picked off a Bethea pass to give the ball to the Tigers at the Bethune-Cookman 40-yard line.
After another long delay to try and get the scoreboard working, play eventually restarted with Crawley throwing an incompletion before Chalk picked up nine-yards on a run before breaking free on a 61-yard scoring scamper with 9:09 left on the clock.
That would be the game’s final score, although GSU’s Robinson had a long punt return for what looked to be a score called back by penalty in the final two minutes.
“I’m happy for our seniors to win here at home again,” said GSU coach Hue Jackson after the game. “To finish the home slate 3-1, I’m excited about that for them while I really wish we could have got to 4-0, but we didn’t, But I think all of (GSU’s seniors) contributed to this win today.”
While happy with the win, Jackson was thrilled with an offense that had chances to put several other scores on the board but failed to make it happen.
“I watched it all and we didn’t score,” Jackson said about his team’s trips inside the red-zone while coming away with no scores, including a a pair of missed field goal attempts that didn’t help matters. “I was not happy with the way we played offensively.
“But I thought our defense rose up to the challenge. I thought our offense was very uncharacteristic of how we play. But I give a lot of that credit to Bethune-Cookman’s defense — they did a good job.”
Sundata Anderson led the Tigers defensively with 11 tackles, including a pair of sacks.
“I told him that he had to go dominate in this game and he did,” Jackson said. “Him and Lewis (Matthews) and those seniors over there, our defensive line and linebackers, our secondary, too, they got after it.
“Those guys can play. They’ve been talked about, talked at — I put a lot of pressure on them because we needed to stop the run. I think they handled their business today and they have to grow from this performance and keep getting better.”
Williams led GSU rushers with 119 yards on 17 carries while Chalk ran for 80 yards on nine attempts while Crawley completed 11-for-22 passes for 142 yards, hitting six different receivers with Robinson leading the way with six receptions for 73 yards.
GSU is now 4-4 overall and 2-2 in Southwestern Athletic Conference play and will next face Alabama State next Saturday in the Port City Classic in Mobile, Alabama.
