Howard Beats Morgan State 26-20 in OT as Ben Chandler IV Returns Interception 87 Yards

For three quarters and change, Morgan State played the kind of game that wins conference titles. Then Isaiah Freeman, Howard's third quarterback of the afternoon, led two fourth-quarter touchdown drives at Hughes Stadium, and the MEAC race got a lot more complicated.

Howard erased a 20-6 fourth-quarter deficit and beat Morgan State 26-20 in overtime on Oct. 24 in Baltimore. The winning points came from the defense. On Morgan State's first overtime possession, sophomore defensive back Ben Chandler IV intercepted Cameron Edge and returned it 87 yards for a walk-off touchdown.

It was the annual Hall of Fame Game, Alumni Day for the Bears and the MEAC opener for both teams. Howard left at 4-4 and 1-0 in the league. Morgan State, which came in chasing its first winning season and first MEAC title since 2014, fell to 5-3 and 0-1.

Field goals, then a Morgan State surge

The first half belonged to the kickers. Morgan State's Alex Amaya made field goals of 42 and 29 yards in the first quarter. Howard's Matt Conord answered with kicks of 38 and 27 yards in the second, and the teams went to the locker room tied at 6. Amaya finished 2 of 3 on field goals, and in a game decided in overtime, that miss would loom large.

The third quarter was all Morgan State. The Bears' defense forced three straight three-and-outs, and Bryce Djossou added a sack. The offense finally broke through with 4:48 left in the quarter, when Edge found Joseph Towler for a 36-yard touchdown to finish a five-play, 50-yard drive. Early in the fourth, Edge struck again, a 14-yard touchdown pass to Alex Simmons with 13:26 left that capped an eight-play, 67-yard march. It was 20-6, and Howard's offense had spent most of the day looking for answers.

The turning point: Freeman takes over

Howard had already used two quarterbacks. Ja'Shawn Scroggins started and was hurt. T.J. Russell Jr. came in and struggled. That left Freeman, who started the season third on the depth chart.

Freeman's path to that moment was not a straight line. Before Howard, Freeman played Division II football at Lincoln (Pa.), where the quarterback was the 2023 CIAA Offensive Player of the Year, then spent 2025 at Hampton before transferring to Howard. None of that mattered to a Morgan State defense that had been in control all afternoon. What mattered was what happened next.

With 7:46 left, Freeman finished a drive with a 2-yard touchdown run to make it 20-13. Howard's defense got the ball back, and Freeman went to work again. With 3:09 remaining, Freeman threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Billy Roberson II, and Conord's extra point tied the game at 20. Morgan State had a two-score lead with less than 14 minutes to play and could not hold it.

"We just had to settle down," Howard coach Ted White said, according to HBCU Gameday. "We went into halftime. We made some adjustments."

Overtime: one throw, 87 yards

Morgan State got the ball first in overtime and had a chance to put Howard in a must-score spot. Instead, Edge threw a pass that Chandler picked off, and the sophomore from Washington ran the other way for 87 yards and the win. WMAR reported that the interception came on fourth-and-long. Either way, Chandler's return ended the game on the spot, and Chandler was named a BOXTOROW HBCU Co-National Player of the Week for it.

Morgan State coach Damon Wilson summed it up in one line. "You can't turn the ball over down there in overtime," Wilson said.

The players who decided it

Freeman's numbers were modest on paper and enormous in context. The quarterback completed 4 of 6 passes for 36 yards and a touchdown and ran six times for 42 yards and another score. At a Monday MEAC coaches call, White said Freeman "never had any bad body language" and "was ready for his opportunity."

Roberson carried the Howard ground game, running 14 times for 76 yards and catching three passes, one of them the tying touchdown. Howard ran 37 times for 166 yards as a team, and that was where its offense lived. Conord hit field goals of 38 and 27 yards and the tying extra point. John Washington III returned five kickoffs for 154 yards. Liam Allen IV punted six times, a reminder of how long the Howard offense sputtered before Freeman arrived. On defense, Faisal Mass had 1.5 sacks, and Kaleb Gallop, Kedrick Green and Aidan Foster had six tackles each.

For Morgan State, Edge completed 23 of 33 passes for 195 yards and two touchdowns, but the one interception decided the game, and Edge was sacked three times. Keith Jenkins Jr. ran 17 times for 82 yards and returned five kickoffs for 126 yards. Towler had three catches for 51 yards. Darius Jones led the Bears with 11 tackles, while Arturo Mattocks, Raquane Matthews and Mike Hastie each had five tackles and a tackle for loss.

The stats that matter

Howard won this game while throwing for only 80 yards. Its three quarterbacks combined to go 12 of 23. Morgan State outgained Howard 294 to 246 and won the passing battle 195 to 80. Howard's 166 rushing yards came at about 4.5 yards per carry, and Freeman's legs gave the Bison a dimension the first two quarterbacks had not. Howard did not turn the ball over once. Morgan State turned it over one time, and it cost the Bears the game.

Wilson pointed to the details. "Execution," Wilson said. "And all those drives, we ended up having a penalty on those drives, and we ended up getting behind the sticks." The full numbers are in the ESPN box score (opens in a new tab).

A rivalry that keeps going to overtime

This one had a familiar finish. Last season, Howard beat Morgan State 33-27 in overtime in Washington, scoring on the first play of the extra period. Now the Bison have won back-to-back overtime games in the series and eight of the last nine meetings overall, according to WMAR. Morgan State still leads the all-time series 47-36-3.

What it means

For Morgan State, the frustration is obvious. The Bears had recently earned their first appearance in the Stats Perform Top 25, and HBCU Gameday noted that a championship projection had them as the MEAC's representative. Now they have lost back-to-back games, to Tennessee State and Howard.

"You have a two-score lead in the fourth quarter; you're supposed to win that ballgame," Wilson said in the Morgan State recap. "I think we got a little complacent with regard to having a two-score lead, and Howard continued to fight, and they won the ballgame." Wilson added: "We showed some of our immaturity at times today on the field."

For Howard, under a first-year head coach, this is the kind of win that can change a season. The Bison were 1-0 in the league, and next on the schedule was a trip to NC Central on Saturday, Oct. 31, at O'Kelly-Riddick Stadium. White was honest about the work left. "I noticed a lot of things that we have to clean up," White said.

The last word

"These guys never quit," White said. "I'm really proud of these guys."

Down 14 in the fourth quarter on the road, with a third-string quarterback, Howard had every reason to. It did not. In a conference race this tight, one interception return may end up being the play that decides who goes where in November. Read more in the recaps from Morgan State (opens in a new tab) and Howard (opens in a new tab).

Sources: Morgan State Athletics recap, Howard Athletics, ESPN box score, HBCU Gameday, WMAR-2 News and FOX45 Baltimore. More college football coverage on Undrafted.