WR Justin Smith of the Spartans makes a one-handed catch during the game between Norfolk State and NC A&T State. Photo by Naje Murray, Norfolk State University Athletics Dept.
Oct. 5, 2019 — The Spartans hosted the Aggies of North Carolina A&T State University after losing their first conference game of the season last week to Florida A&M 30-28. They hoped to gain an edge against the Aggies this weekend. The last time Norfolk State met North Carolina A&T was at Aggie Stadium where they lost 37-20 on November 3, 2018.
North Carolina A&T gained the lead on a 2-play drive after Juwan Carter of Norfolk State threw an interception. The drive consisted of a 34-yard run by Jah-Maine Martin to the Spartans 2-yard line and then a 2-yd touchdown run by Martin again to give the Aggies a 7-0 lead.
On North Carolina A&T’s next drive the quarterback Kylil Carter fumbled the ball on a quarterback keeper on a tackle made by Nhyre’ Quinerly, who finished with a game high 15 tackles.
After recovering the fumble Norfolk State drove down the field from their own 44 to North Carolina A&T’s 27 but couldn’t convert so they had to resort to a 44-yard field goal from Josh Nardone.
On the first play of North Carolina A&T’s next drive Martin ran for 67 yards to the house for the score to put the Aggies up 13-3. The extra point was blocked by Kyron Speller.
Norfolk State’s next possession resulted in an interception by Alex Fumbah which he returned for 6 yards to give the Aggies the ball at the end of the 1st quarter. At the start of the 2nd quarter the Aggies scored a touchdown from a 5-yard pass from Kylil Carter to Quinze Lockhart.
Norfolk State wasted another opportunity when Aaron Savage fumbled the ball at their own 26-yard line which then resulted in North Carolina A&T cashing in on the fumble recovery with a touchdown pass to Zachary Leslie for 26 yards to give them the lead of 27-3 in the 2nd.
At the 5:10 mark in the 2nd quarter Norfolk Sate held the Aggies to a field goal. Noel Ruiz made a 24-yard field goal to extend to lead to 30-3.
Later in the quarter, the Aggies started their drive at their own 32-yard line and scored a touchdown off a 68-yard run from Martin.
Norfolk State scored their first touchdown of the game off a pass from Juwan Carter to Justin Smith for 3 yards.
At the beginning of the second half the Spartan scored another touchdown that made the score 37-16. After a miscalculation from the Aggies the Spartans recovered the kickoff and got a field goal out of it, making the score 37-19. They were closing the gap but North Caroline A&T responded with a touchdown pass on the first play for 68 yards to extend the lead to 44-19.
After Norfolk State turned it over on downs on their next possession the Aggies received the ball and scored on a 5 play 51-yard drive that resulted in a 4-yard rush from Kashon Baker to put the Aggies up even more at 51-19.
The last score of the game from the Aggies who scored close to the beginning of the 4th quarter. It was a 6-play 39-yard drive with the touchdown coming from a 4-yard rush from Jalen Fowler.
Juwan Carter completed 24 out of 44 passes for 252 yards and had one touchdown. His only touchdown of the game was a 2-yard TD pass to Justin Smith in the 2nd quarters.
Carter also had 3 interceptions today and he was also sacked 4 times on the day. Aggies had 21 points off turnovers from Norfolk State.
The Aggies offense were what kept them ahead in this game. They had 594 all purpose yards and 410 rushing yards, that was mainly contributed by Jah-Maine Martin’s 10 rushes for 200 yards. Martin finished the game with 3 touchdowns.
North Carolina A&T had 3 drives that were only one play and resulted in touchdowns. They were a 67-yard and 68-yard runs from Martin, and 68-yard pass from Kylil Carter to Zachary Leslie. The Aggies were unstoppable in the red-zone scoring all 5 times they were down there.
Kylil Carter was 9 for 14 with 176 passing yards and 3 touchdowns in the game.
The Aggies now lead the series 31-10 with the 58-19 win over Norfolk State today. The Spartans are 1-5 on the season now and 0-2 in the MEAC. The Aggies are 4-1 and 2-0 in the MEAC.
The next home game for the Spartans is versus Morgan State for Homecoming on November 2, 2019.
NSU Athletics posted video of Smith’s catch on Twitter.
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