Savannah , GA---The Howard University football team fell behind early and had to fight its way back to finally take the lead before allowing Savannah State to steal victory from the jaws of defeat in a thrilling 31-27 win over the Bison in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference game at Ted Wright Stadium. The win snapped a nine-game winless streak by the Tigers who had never defeated Howard. It also marked the first time that Savannah State has posted two MEAC wins in a season since coming into the conference.
Savannah State (2-4, 2-3 in the MEAC) came out and got off to a good start before a homecoming crowd. The Bison (1-8, 1-5 in the MEAC) gave the Tigers a gift when Jason Collins' fumble set up a score at the Howard 13-yard line. It took Savannah State four plays to get the game's first score, a Nicholas Bently one-yard plunge at the 7:15 mark of the first quarter.
Savannah State would score again on a 53-yard jaunt by Arshon Spaulding a little less than four minutes later.
"We came out and had sloppy play, starting from the quarterback position," said Howard head coach Gary Harrell. "We started with Jason Collins who made some mistakes as far as decision making skills. We gave them a short field and they were able to take advantage of that and went up 14-0. Once we started to wake up and make plays with Kalen Johnson, he came in made some good throws but missed some important open passes."
Howard would finally get its first score, compliments of an interception by Craig Johnson that gave his team possession deep in the Tigers' territory. Bison leading rusher Anthony Philyaw, who played with a thigh contusion, capped off the short drive with an 11-yard power run early in the second quarter.
The Tigers would counter and put pressure on Howard when Tigers freshman quarterback TJ Bell finished off a 72-yard drive with a 17-yard winding run.
The Bison put together their best drive of the day, traveling 89 yards in 17 plays, but the offense would bog down and settle for a Dakota Labofsky 25-yard field goal that cut the deficit to 21-10 at the half.
Using the momentum, Howard opened the third quarter with a short drive, but again, it had to settle for another Labofsky 25-yard field goal that made it 21-13 at the 11:37 mark.
The Tigers came back to answer with 36-yard field goal by John Barron a little more than two minutes later.
That is when Howard began to take charge. Red-shirt sophomore quarterback Kalen Johnson engineered another long drive, this time a 13-play, 80-yard drive to start the fourth period and reduced the deficit to 24-19 after missing the two-point conversion. Johnson connected with Robert Mercer for the 19-yard TD.
The Bison, who ran 90 plays to only 61 by the Tigers, marched 77 yards on their next possession. The drive was finished off with a 37-yard strike to freshman wide receiver Kyle Anthony. The 6-3 freshman from Miramar, FL had a career day in the loss, catching a game- and career-high 9 passes for
137 yard and a TD. The Bison had fought all the way back to take the lead at 27-24 with just 5:17 in the fourth period.
"I had cramped on the previous play, so I made sure that I went all out to get the touchdown," said Anthony, a strong candidate for MEAC Rookie of the Year. "It was a fight for the ball. I was fortunate that I came up with it, but the bottom line is that we did not finished the deal."
The Bison held Savannah State on downs in their next possession, but they could not put the hosts away although they had no timeouts.
Howard punted to the Tigers, who got a nice return of 38 yards that gave Savannah State the ball at the Howard 49 with 1:47 on the clock. The Bison defense, following a sack by Elijah Anglin, forced the Tigers into a second and 20. Then came the play that would break Howard's heart. Bell found Derek Kirkland for 52 yards down to the Howard 18-yard line. Four plays later, the two hooked up again, this time from six yards that gave the Tigers a 31-27 lead and the victory with 19 seconds.
"We just have to make sure when the game is there to be won, as far as getting stops, we have to make sure we make the tackles and continue to get ahead when we have the momentum," noted Harrell. "We just didn't do a good job as far as finishing in that area."
The Tigers, who have struggled all season on offense, found their mojo at the Bison's expense. Spaulding rushed for a season-high 102 yards and a TD and Bell, a true freshman, had his best day as a collegian, completing 16 of 31 for 241 and a TD. He also ran for a TD.
Without Philyaw, the MEAC's second leading rusher less than 100 percent, Howard struggled to find consistency on offense. Johnson completed 23 of 48 for a career-high 248 yards and two TDs. He also led his team in rushing with 39 yards on 10 carries. Philyaw finished with 26 yards on 14 carries and a TD and he caught four passes for 51 yards.
"Philyaw is an important guy, but we have other guys on scholarship who have to perform around him," said Harrell. "We can't put everything on him. There's no doubt about it, he is a major part of what we're doing on offense but we have to have guys at the wide receiver position to take the pressure off of him and Kyle. It has to be more of a team effort."
Defensively, Craig Johnson (9 tackles, 2 for losses), Jalen Day (8 tackles, 2 for losses) and Elijah Anglin (5 tackles, a tackle for a loss and a sack) all played well in defeat.
"This was a game of a lot of ups and downs," recalled Johnson. "They got on us early in the first half but I'm definitely proud of how my team played in the second half. We came back and fought; we just didn't finish the job. That's the bottom line of the whole game."
NEXT UP: The Bison get a bye next week before traveling to Durham, NC to take on the Eagles of North Carolina Central at 2 pm.
