Dover, Del. (Oct. 24, 2015) – Delaware State surrendered two touchdowns early in the game, one on a  special teams miscue, and never recovered in a 34-7 MEAC loss to South Carolina State in the Hornets' homecoming contest at Alumni Stadium today.

The Bulldogs won their second game in a row to improve to 4-3 overall and 3-1 in the MEAC. The Hornets fell to 0-7 and 0-4.

South Carolina State took advantage of a DSU special teams error to score the game's first touchdown less than two minutes into the contest.

After the Hornets failed to get a first down on the game's opening possession, punter Jeremiah McGeough bobbled the snap. The loose ball was recovered by SC State's Tevin Richard, who ran 10 yards to the endzone to give the Bulldogs 6-0 lead just one-minute-35-seconds into the game. The Bulldogs missed the extra point kick following the touchdown.

South Carolina State forced the Hornets to punt after three plays on their second possession. This time, MeGeough's punt was partially blocked by SC State's Richard, giving the Bulldogs the ball at the DSU 41.

South Carolina State needed nine plays to add to its lead. Dondre Brown capped off the three-minute-47 second drive with a two-yard run touchdown run. The extra point kick by Tyler Scandrett gave the Bulldogs a 13-0 lead with 7:49 left in the first quarter.

A Delaware State turnover led to the Bulldogs' third touchdown.

Six plays after Delaware State quarterback Gil Rivera lost a fumble on a sack at the Hornet 24 yard line, Brown hauled in a seven-yard TD pass from Caleb York to give SC State a 20-0 lead.

York connected with Lynard Jamison on a 68-yard touchdown pass on the second play of the third quarter to stretch SC State's lead to 27-0

Delaware State gave its fans something to cheer about in the third quarter. Terrick Colston's second interception of the season and 23-yard return set up the Hornets' lone touchdown. Starting at the SC State 37, DSU scored in eight plays. Rivera capped off the drive with an eight-yard touchdown pass to Malik Golson, his third TD catch of the season. Rivera connected with Morris Frasier on a 13-yard pass on fourth-and-one to move the ball to the SC State 15-yard line during the drive. Wisdom Nzidee's extra point kick cut the Bulldogs' lead to 27-7 with 5:01 left in the third quarter.

South Carolina State closed out the scoring on a 12-yard touchdown run by Jalen Simmons less than a minute into the fourth quarter.

SC State totaled 378 yards in the contest, 257 through the air and 121 on the ground. Delaware State tallied 280 yards, 219 by the pass.

Rivera completed 23-of-41 passes for a career-high 219 yards in the game. He has connected on 60-of-104 passes (57.7%) for 600 yards since coming off the bench in the second quarter of the Hornets' 21-7 loss to Hampton on Oct. 10. Rivera has started the last two games for the Hornets.  

DSU wide receiver Aris Scott had eight receptions for 87 yards, giving him 27 catches for 316 yards in the last three contests.

Freshman Brycen Alleyne led the Hornets with a career-high 50 yards rushing on 20 carries.     

Rashawn Barrett topped the DSU defense with nine tackles, including five solo stops.

Hornet defensive end Gabe Sherrod had seven tackles, including 3.5 behind the line-of-scrimmage. He also had 1.5 sacks in the game to give him a team-high 4.5 this season.

York completed 17-of-28 passes for 241 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Bulldog offense. SC State receiver Taquan West had nine catches for 113 yards.

Bulldog tackle Javon Hargrave, the MEAC's Preseason Defensive Player-of-the-Year, had eight tackles, including three sacks and a forced fumble.

South Carolina State had five sacks in the contest.     

The Hornets are also home for their next contest against Bethune-Cookman on Oct. 31. Game time is 2 p.m. at Alumni Stadium.

STINGERS
Golson has nine touchdown catches in his career for the Hornets … Colston has interceptions in each of the last two games to give him 10 for his career … Colston has 155 interception return yards with the Hornets.

POSTGAME COMMENTS (Head coach Kenny Carter, Malik Golson and Gabriel Sherrod):

Media: Coach, just start off with some opening statements about today's game.

Carter: Very disappointed. Extremely disappointed in the kicking game. You can't have situations where you do what we did as far as punting the football. There wasn't a protection breakdown, there was an operation breakdown. I have to find out what is going on with my punter. It is inexcusable, it just can't happen. That's why I made the change right there at the end. Offensively, we sputtered there a little bit at the beginning, we put together the one drive, got that in and then we got stalled. Penalties will kill you every time. Defense, I'm proud of them guys. They keep playing. They played with a short field too many times and they had the one big play on them, they hit us on the screen. Outside of that, they did a really nice job of holding them a couple times and then when you hit and make that last drive and you still have it within you to still strip the ball out and recover a fumble on a drive that's a long run. That tells you that you have kids that are fighting, they're resilient.

Media: What do you need to see better out of your offense?

Carter: Oh gosh. Number one you always have to be able to run the ball. We have to try to manufacture things that will give us the opportunity. We are not able to knock people back and when you can't do that you have to skew runs to give you an opportunity to get the ball on the perimeter, which we did. Which I think Bryson (Alleyne) when he got some space, did some good things. That is really what we have to do, passing game, do some things as far as screening game, probably, and quick game. Get the ball out of Gil's (Rivera) hands so we don't have to sit there.

Media: The (Javon) Hargrave kid, 97, on the defensive line is a game-changer. He had three or four sacks today.

Carter: He is a really good football player, but he is a preseason all-conference player. It is not like he just showed up at our game and was a game-changer. He is a good player and they have another inside guy that is a good football player and we knew that was going to be the case. We are not as stout at guard as we need to be and when we don't have that, it really affects your run game, it affects your protection especially when one of their better player is an A-gap player.

Media: Without a win this point in the season, what's the mood like in the locker room?

Carter: The mood is disappointing. The mood is we have to figure it out.  Our guys have to really have an internal search as individuals and decide that losing is not something that is a part of your DNA. Right now, its apart of the culture of our program that we need to eradicate. We just have to keep working, got to keep pressing and making sure that they understand really the work and execution is what gets you out. There is no magic dust that we are going to be able to sprinkle on people and all of a sudden you just going to win a football game. You win a football game by tackling, by catching, by doing all the fundamental things that is specifically football.

Media: The strip-fumble at the end, Terrick (Colston) never stops playing.   To have a senior like that when you guys are in some tough situations, what does he mean to the team?

Carter: I love him. If we just have an outright captain on our team, he would be that person. He really has carried himself in that manner. We don't have great leadership in our senior class and that's not a dig at them, it's a fact. I have shared that with them and they know that. When you don't have that, when you don't have great leadership from the top it is very hard for young players when they don't have something to use as a reference. We have to as a staff manufacture that and really put ourselves in the position where we can grow the young guys and groom them as leaders.   

Media: Opening statements about today's game.

Golson: I thought we came out pretty hard. We came out pretty hype, because its homecoming and everybody's head was right. Just a few mistakes here and there that caused the game. But that's all fixable. We can fix it in practice next week. We're just going to come out the following four weeks and just play as hard as we did today.

Sherrod: On the defensive side of the ball, I thought that we had a really good game plan this week. We executed it, we stopped them from doing what they really love to do which is run the Power-O and run the zone-read. We got them into some situations where they had to make some key plays, and when they did they relied on 40 (Dondre Brown).  At the beginning of the game, we couldn't seem to rally to get him down on the flag zones coming back across for a couple of touchdowns. But, we fought the whole game and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season because this is a start, I believe, to something that's going to work out really well.

Media: This question is for both of you guys. At this point in the season you guys are still winless. How can you describe what is the mood like in the locker room?

Golson: Everybody's on edge right now. We all have a sense of urgency. Everybody wants to win on this team, so it's a bummer but everybody is staying positive. We always go into the game thinking that we're going to win. We never go into the game thinking that we're going to lose. So everybody's still positive. We're just going to keep going at it for the rest of the season.

Sherrod: I mean, the energy week-to-week, I believe is the same week-to-week. You know, we expect to win the games because of the plans that we have and the energy during the week is good. I mean, we really expect to come out and win these games. The games that we've lost and had our shortcomings in are behind us. Week-to-week it's a new day and that's how we prepare, like it's a new day-and we're ready to face the next challenge ahead of us.

Media: Watching you guys at practice, the energy is always up, it's probably better than what you guys had last year. Is it just hard to not see any fruits of that labor yet? How can you describe working through this whole transition season?

Sherrod: I mean, at the beginning of the season we really had high expectations for where we wanted to be and the things that we had planned for this season. I believed that we were good enough to run through the MEAC and go to the Celebration Bowl. But, with that, I mean, you can't expect for things to go right all of the time, you know? It takes 11 guys consistently doing their job to fully be dedicated and win games. And when 11 guys aren't doing their job, that play and the effort kind of gets diminished. I mean, we've got playmakers, we've got talent all over the field. I mean, players from every position have talent. It's just, bringing all of that talent together. The coaches have great schemes for us. I don't think we have been out-coached one time this year. Not one time. It's us, as players, coming together working as 11 to complete the goals and plays that we need to make. We're getting there. Those plays are starting to be made a little bit more. I'm excited for next week, to see what's ahead of us.

Media: Malik, when you guys are in such a big hole, does that change the offensive team at all?

Golson: No, we never go away from our game plan. We just try to settle down and get everybody on the same page and just do their job. Everybody just has to do their job. But we never go away from our game plan. We never panic. We always just calm down, relax and go out there and do our best every time that we go out there.

Media: Gabe, defensively, Terrick Colston's strip-fumble with still three minutes to go.  What can you describe about his dedication to this team as one of the seniors?

Sherrod: TC is a big time player. He's been a big time player since he got here. His leadership is shown by his play. And his affect in the locker room is shown by what he does on the field on a consistent basis. There's never a lack of energy in TC. You'll never find a player more committed to the process than TC is. He's willing to give what he's got every single play, hurt or not. And I really give him a salute and a lot of respect. He could've let that play go. And that play could've busted for a touchdown.  But to strip the ball at the end of the game, even when things look like there's no possible way for us to come back in the game, that just shows a lot about his character and who he is. He's been a really good player and a really good friend.