Howard prevails for 4th straight year
Despite having 63 more offensive yards than Howard, for the fourth year in a row the Morehouse Maroon Tigers loss to the Bison in the Nation’s Classic on Saturday. Bison quarterback and reigning MEAC Player of the Year Greg McGhee, who passed for 149 yards and rushed for 99, won the classic’s Most Valuable Player award for the third time in his career after the 35-17 win over Morehouse.
“It’s a blessing. I’m honored to be in the position I’m in,” McGhee said. “But I definitely want to give a shoutout to the offensive line and the receivers because without them, none of this would be possible.”
Morehouse was able to match the Bison offensively, but Tigers head coach Rich Freeman says that their special teams play is what held them back.
“We didn’t play the kicking game as well as we should have, and we didn’t coach the kicking game as well as we should have,” Freeman said. “Their kickoff return team pretty much had a field day with our kickoff team.”
That field day started in the first quarter. After Morehouse got out to a quick 6-0 lead, they kicked the ball off to Howard running back William Parker, who returned the ball 52 yards to the Morehouse 42 yard line. McGhee and his offense were then able to take advantage of the short field by making their way into the end zone in just five plays.
The rest of the first quarter would be scoreless for both teams. Howard head coach Gary Harrell says he was not pleased with the way his team started the game.
“We did the same thing last week against Rutgers,” Harrell said. “We played a terrible first half. So we want to start coming out with that same motivation and mentality in the beginning.”
The Bison came out of the intermission on fire with the offense producing touchdowns on three of their first four possessions, expanding their 14-9 lead at halftime to 28-9 by the end of the third quarter. The Bison defense was also able to hold Morehouse on two fourth down attempts in the third quarter to keep the Maroon Tigers off the board.
Harrell says that defense will be key for Howard to have a shot at winning the MEAC Championship this year.
“When you look back at the last two MEAC champs in Bethune Cookman and South Carolina State, both of those teams play very outstanding defense and we understand that,” Harrell said. “So we want to make sure that our defense is on a level where when we’re in those tough defensive situations that we know they can come through.”
The Howard defense continued their stellar play in the fourth quarter, only giving up one touchdown. Howard’s special teams also continued their dominance over Morehouse, recovering a muffed punt on Morehouse’s 22 yard line, which eventually lead to a 17-yard touchdown pass to sophomore receiver Robert Mercer.
In one final attempt to score, Morehouse quarterback Monqavious Johnson led the Maroon Tigers 85 yards down the field with just three minutes left in the game. However, the Tigers ran out of time with the drive stalling at the Howard eight yard line, resulting in a final score of 35-17 Howard.
McGhee believes that the win will do a lot for the team’s confidence as they prepare to open conference play against Morgan State next week.
“Over the last three games, we’ve gained a lot of confidence and swagger as a team,” McGhee said. “Last week with Rutgers we had a swagger with us and an energy level that was up here. So that’s something I’d like to see us take into next week and the rest of the season.”