GREENSBORO - Injuries have played a major role in North Carolina A&T's disappointing 2010 football season.
Saturday afternoon's game against Florida A&M just furthered the narrative. Without star running back Mike Mayhew and his backup Dominique Drake, the Aggies lost 22-19 in overtime at Aggie Stadium.
Florida A&M's four-year starter at running back, Phillip Sylvester, scored on a 14-yard game-winning touchdown run to improve the Rattlers to 6-3 overall and 5-1 in the MEAC. Sylvester finished with 110 yards and a touchdown on 32 carries.
"Overall, I thought we fought hard against a good football team,'' said North Carolina A&T head coach Alonzo Lee. "We've just got to keep working. It's really tough to come out here after a hard-fought battle like this one because I really felt we could have come out on top if we had of seized every moment."
The Rattlers booted two second-half field goals to tie the game at 16. What followed was a stingy Aggies defense.
The biggest Aggies stop came with four minutes remaining in the game. Brandon Davis' second interception of the game gave the Rattlers the ball at the Aggies 44-yard line after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on FAMU.
All the Rattlers could muster, however, was a holding penalty and three straight incomplete passes. The Rattlers had great field position on their next possession, starting at their own 41. But the Aggies "D" allowed only five yards, which eventually led to the overtime.
"It definitely was one of our better defensive games,'' said senior linebacker Brandon Jackson, who led the Aggies with 13 tackles. "We fought hard for four quarters, which is something we don't always do. Sometimes we come out flat. But I feel like we fought today. I feel everyone gave their all. But we've got to learn how to make big plays at the end."
The Aggies opened overtime with a 21-yard completion from quarterback George Hines to Wallace Miles as by rule the ball was spotted at the opponents' 25. It appeared Miles scored on the play, but the officials said he stepped out of bounds at the 4. The Aggies were not able to score six points. Instead, they settled for a Sullivan Shidler 21-yard field goal.
FAMU took its opportunity from the 25 and made the best of it. Sylvester opened with a run of 8 yards, picked up the first down with a four-yard run, before ending the game with his 14-yard burst to the end zone.
Unfortunately for N.C. A&T, its star running back didn't get to play as long. Mayhew, who leads the MEAC in rushing with 1,073 yards, left Saturday's game in the second quarter with a high ankle sprain. A few minutes later, Drake came off the field with an injured shoulder. Neither player returned, yet the Aggies found ways to stay competitive.
"I thought we moved the ball even without them in the game,'' said Lee. "We had way too many dropped passes from some of our key guys. We had some costly penalties. There are always two or three plays in a game you can point to and say those plays turned the game one way or the other."
One regrettable moment for the Aggies occurred toward the end of the first half. Hines, who has made a habit of leading the Aggies on drives that exceed 15 plays, was in the midst of a drive that would end after 18 plays.
Before being injured on the long drive, Mayhew had rushed for 25 yards on five carries, and he caught a pass for six yards. On the 12th play of the drive, Hines found a wide open Torrian Warren down the middle of the field for a 25-yard reception on 4th-and-17.
Two plays later, a pass interference penalty gave the Aggies a 1st-and-goal on the FAMU 2 with 24 seconds remaining in the first half. Without a timeout, the Aggies took a chance by handing the ball off to Tony Coles.
When he was stopped for no gain, confusion began as the field goal team ran on the field while the offense was still there. The Aggies were called for an illegal substitution penalty, which led to Shidler's 23-yard field goal that gave the Aggies a 16-10 halftime lead. Earlier in the drive the Aggies had a 45-yard reception to the FAMU 1 called back for an illegal use of hands penalty.
"That's why I tell the guys to seize the moment because you never know which play is going to come back to haunt you," said Lee.
The Aggies scored both their touchdowns thanks to special teams play. A 72-yard kickoff return by Warren led to a 5-yard first-quarter touchdown run by Hines. Minutes later, D'Vonte Grant picked up a fumbled snap by FAMU punter Brandon Holdren.
He returned it to the FAMU 12, before he fumbled the ball, and eventually had it recovered in the end zone by Vernon White for an Aggies touchdown. The awkward play gave the Aggies a 13-7 advantage.
"Thank God for a week off,'' said Lee. "It's tough playing 10 straight games. You would love to get that by week around the fifth or sixth week. But playing 10 straight games is any team's nightmare. We're a little banged up and dinged up. Hopefully, during this bye week, we'll be able to rehab (Mayhew and Drake) and get them ready for South Carolina State."
The Aggies will get next week off before playing the S.C. State Bulldogs on Saturday, Nov. 20 at 1:30 p.m., from Aggie Stadium.
