Dover, Del. (Oct. 3, 2015) --- Delaware State trailed by just seven points in the fourth quarter, but surrendered two late scores in a 26-6 loss to Morgan State in the Hornets' MEAC opener in soggy and windy conditions at Alumni Stadium this afternoon.

DSU trailed 3-0 at the half, but evened the game at 6-6 on a touchdown midway through the third quarter.

Morgan State (2-2; 2-0 MEAC) answered by scoring the final 20 points in the game, including a late third quarter touchdown to lead for good. The Bears scored two touchdowns in the last 5:33 of the contest to seal their second straight win.

Orlando Johnson rushed for 124 yards and a touchdown to lead Morgan State's 393-yard offensive attack. MSU quarterback Moses Skillon threw for 143 yards and a touchdown, and ran for 61 yards and a score.

Delaware State's Jamaal Jackson tallied 78 yards rushing on 17 carries. Hornet QB Esayah Obado passed for 137 yards and a touchdown, but was sacked six times in the contest. Wide receiver Malik Golson had two receptions for 73 yards and a score. DSU had 228 yards of total offense in the contest.

The game was scoreless for the first 29-minues-19 seconds.

The Hornets reached Morgan State territory twice in the first quarter, once advancing to the Bears' four-yard line, but came up empty each time.

Morgan State finally broke through when Chris Moller capped off a nine-play, 27-yard drive with a 26-yard field goal to lead 3-0 with 41 seconds to go before halftime.

Moller nailed his second field goal of the game, from 23 yards out, to give the Bears a 6-0 lead with 10:59 left in the third quarter.

On the ensuing Delaware State possession, the Hornets were facing third-and-10 from their 35-yard line when Obado ran away from pressure and found Golson wide open along the DSU sideline for a 65-yard touchdown to tie the game at 6-6 with 7:18 left in the third quarter.

It was Golson's second touchdown of the season and longest scoring catch of his career.

The Hornets were flagged for holding on the extra point kick, and were forced to try again from 30 yards out. The second kick by Wisdom Nzidee failed when the ball was blown to his left by the gusty wind.

The score remained tied until Skillon scored on a 32-yard keeper to cap off a two-play 57-yard drive, and put the Bears back in front. Moller's extra point kick gave Morgan State a 13-6 lead with 1:44 left in the third quarter.

Skillon engineered a nine-play, 80-yard scoring drive, ending with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Lamont Brown, to give the Bears a two-touchdown lead with 5:33 left to play.

On the ensuing kickoff, Delaware was unable to recover the short kick and Morgan State regained possession at the DSU 27.

Four plays later, Morgan State led 26-6 after an eight-yard touchdown run by Johnson and Moller extra point kick with 3:38 left to play.

Delaware State linebacker Malik Harris had a game-high 12 tackles, including nine unassisted. Harris recorded four tackles behind the line-of-scrimmage and recovered a fumble in the contest.

Defensive back Mark Flakes had a career-high nine tackles (eight solo) for the Hornets.

DSU is now 0-4 this season.

Delaware State is on the road for the next two weeks, beginning with a trip to Hampton next Saturday (Oct. 10) at 2 p.m. The Hornets will also visit Florida A&M on Oct. 17 before returning home to take on South Carolina State in the annual homecoming contest on Oct. 24.      

POSTGAME QUOTES (Kenny Carter, Esayah Obado, Malik Golson and Malik Harris):

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

Carter: I was really proud of our kids and how they started off the game. We talked about our plan to win and one of the big things in our plan to win is that you have to score touchdowns in the red zone. We decided to go for it a couple times on fourth down. I believe we didn't convert one, which was the most important one because it was down in the red zone, which I believe was inside the five but we battled and we fought. But, the one thing you have to do is we have to finish, we have to learn how to finish. We put ourselves in some tough spots. We had some short fields, some of that was weather driven and we knew that was going to be apart of the equation. But, we just have to figure out how to get it all together and finish.

Media: With all that being said, you're still within one score late in the game. A couple interceptions there, you're probably on the verge to something. What happened?

Carter: You're right. Mark Flakes had a great opportunity for a pick, Malik Harris had a great opportunity for a pick. The kids are understanding of what we are trying to do schematically. We just have to finish. The defensive staff had a great plan. We had too many penalties on offense, too many penalties on defense, penalties just killed drives, and it helped them sustained drives. We had them in 3rd-&-Long, we had two personal fouls. Just silly penalties.

Media: After the first two drives, you did struggle to move the ball. What were the problems and why couldn't you move the ball? You had a lot of three-and-outs there at the end.

Carter: Protection. I think Esayah (Obado) is really trying to wait and see if things are going to develop a little bit more, wanting to throw the ball more down the field and they have a really good pass-rush. 58 is a really good pass-rusher. He is one of the better pass-rushers in our league and we just have to make sure that we address those things like we continue to do. We've moved some different people around as far as the offensive line and we just need to continue to jet.

Media: Defense probably kept you in the game for longer than you might have expected with the way offense played. What can you say about your defensive effort?

Carter: I don't necessarily think that.  That's how they been playing the entire year. They have been rather consistent about that. They created turnovers in multiple games. This is the first and last two games that we haven't even scored on defense, so I am really proud of those guys. But again, short field and for them to do what they did several times, I'm really pleased with them.

Media: One more question. Jamaal Jackson looked like he had some success there running the ball, a lot of hard running at times. Is that something you can look at and build upon?

Carter: Absolutely. Jamaal is doing a super job. I am really proud of him with some of the things we are doing zone read wise and him being able to bounce the ball outside and running physical. We have challenged him with that and his couple of runs on the sidelines, instead going out of the bounds where he actually put his foot in the ground and attacked his defender. That's what you want out of your backs and he is a doing a nice job trying to keep us in games.

Media: What was your message to the team in the locker room afterwards?

Carter: It's that we have to finish. We got to learn how to finish. And really, the biggest thing is that when you are transitioning and you're putting yourself in positions where you want to win games, you have to believe that you are going to win. Quite frankly, I told them what you think you are, is what you are going to be.

Media:  Guys, can you just give some opening statements about today's game?

Harris: We came out and we played hard. We just got to take advantage of our opportunities that we had.

Golson: I feel like we started the game with great energy. Our sideline was hype, everybody was hype, we was hype in warm-ups. I think just once we got down, we kind of just shut it down. I think when stuff just started not going our way, we just kind of shut it down.  But, we got to just be more consistent in our plays.

Obado: We definitely came out with a lot more energy. The second half, we came out kind of flat. Turnovers and penalties killed us, so we have to get that straight for the next game.

Media: Esayah, talk about that touchdown pass to tie the game off at six.

Obado: We had a play called up it's usually for Malik in man coverage. So I looked there and they were in zone, so I scrambled. I felt pressure on my backside and I made a play on the d-end and I saw Malik going up the sideline and I just took a chance. I got crushed out of bounds, but I knew Malik could catch the ball.

Golson: We went over the scramble rules for a long time, so when I seen him scrambling and I seen where the corner, I just took off up field because there was nobody there and I knew E was automatically going to throw it deep cause that's what we been talking about. We got that kind of relationship to where we know what's going on. It was just a great play it was more of a great play by E, because he made a lot of people miss in the back field he pulled off something crazy and that was just a great play by E.

Media: Malik, talk about the pick-six that you almost had.

Harris: Yeah, they had ran the play twice before the same route.  The second time, I read it and came on and knew I just had to make the play.

Media: Esayah, you're still in a one-score game there late in the third quarter.  One more drive would've perhaps been a touchdown, extra-point go ahead.  How frustrating was it not to still be able to generate some offense when you need it?

Obado: It was very frustrating. Coach was calling some good plays that we just weren't executing. The penalties like I said earlier. Every time we made a play, it seemed like a penalty would set us back.  We were getting negative yards in the second half rather than getting the positive yards.  So that's what really killed us is the penalties.

Media: Malik do you feel the same way?

Golson: Oh yeah, we never folded on the sideline. We always were upbeat, we always were cheering. On defense and offense, we all knew that we were going to come out and pull this out. But sometimes, just stuff happens.  We were in the red zone three times when we could have punched it in. Little things like that just is what made this game go left, but all of that is fixable.  All the problems that we have are fixable, so we just got to go out and practice and fix it.  Got come out and play just as hard as we did today the next game.

Media: What's going it going to take beat Hampton on the road next week?

Golson: It's just going to take consistency and we just got to come out with the same intensity as we did today. We just got t be more consistent and just pay more attention to details and not get so much penalties like we have been in the past couple games.

Obado: Like he said intensity. We came out with intensity and I think when we go down to Hampton next week and we come out with the same intensity and just fix the minor mistakes you know penalties, you know the sacs a couple of those I think we'll  come out with a win next week.

Harris: We just got to do the little things, you know?  Get the pick-six's. We got to take advantage of those six points right there.  It's a whole different game. It's the little things that hurt us today and we going to work on that during the week and get ready for Hampton and take care of business.