South Carolina State Opens MEAC Defense With 22-7 Win Over Norfolk State

Norfolk State drove into South Carolina State territory six times on Saturday afternoon in Orangeburg. It came away with nothing on all six. The Spartans' only touchdown came from a player who never took a snap, and the Bulldogs did not need much more than that to open their MEAC title defense in style.

South Carolina State beat Norfolk State 22-7 at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium on Willie Jeffries Field, in front of a Homecoming crowd that had sold out every reserved seat days earlier. The two-time defending MEAC champions built a 19-0 halftime lead and never gave the ball away.

SC State improves to 6-2 overall and 1-0 in the MEAC. Norfolk State falls to 4-4 and 0-1.

Four drives, 19 points

SC State came out of its bye week looking like a team that had spent two weeks thinking about it. The Bulldogs had last played on Oct. 10, a 49-39 loss at Charleston Southern, and they answered with a 13-play, 80-yard opening drive that took 5:37 off the clock.

It almost stalled. Facing fourth-and-10 at the Norfolk State 26, the Bulldogs got a break when the Spartans jumped offside, and on fourth-and-5, Mason Pickett-Hicks took a handoff 21 yards to the end zone. It was 7-0 with 9:19 left in the first quarter.

The next drive covered 70 yards in eight plays and ended with Jett Jackson's 28-yard field goal. SC State led 10-0 after one quarter.

Then the turnovers started.

The turning point: two picks in two snaps

Midway through the second quarter, Norfolk State finally had something going. The Spartans had driven 53 yards to the SC State 28 and were threatening to make it a one-score game.

Kenneth Brown Jr. ended that thought. He picked off true freshman quarterback DaJean Golmond at the SC State 15 and returned it 51 yards to the Norfolk State 34. Six plays later, Pickett-Hicks scored his second touchdown on a 7-yard run with 5:36 left in the half. The extra point failed, but SC State led 16-0.

On the very first snap of the next possession, it happened again. Mike Evans intercepted Golmond at the Norfolk State 30. The Bulldogs did not gain a yard on the ensuing series, but Jackson drilled a 46-yard field goal anyway with 4:15 left before halftime.

In about a minute and a half of game clock, a game that could have been 10-7 became 19-0. SC State had scored on each of its first four possessions, and the Spartans were left needing three scores against a defense that had not yet let them inside its 20.

Wonodi strikes, but the Spartans stall

To Norfolk State's credit, it did not go quietly, and its best moment came from its best weapon.

Early in the third quarter, the Spartans' defense pinned SC State at its own 7 and held the Bulldogs to minus-1 yard on three plays. MaxCeon Cobb punted from the 6, the kick traveled 41 yards to the Norfolk State 47, and Jason Wonodi did the rest. He went 47 yards for a touchdown with 9:28 left in the third quarter, and Marco Peery's extra point made it 19-7.

It was Wonodi's third punt return touchdown of the season. He returned two against Hampton on Sept. 19, and before this year Norfolk State had not taken a punt back for a score since Nov. 3, 2018. The fifth-year return specialist, a Phil Steele midseason All-American, was named MEAC Specialist of the Week for the effort.

That was as close as it got. Early in the fourth quarter, Norfolk State moved 40 yards to the SC State 17 and fumbled. Myles Dixon recovered for the Bulldogs.

SC State then put together an eight-play, 57-yard drive that ended with Jackson's third field goal, a 34-yarder with 7:56 to play. Norfolk State's last two possessions both died on downs, at the SC State 41 and 37, in the final six minutes.

The players who decided it

Pickett-Hicks was the difference on offense. He ran nine times for 52 yards and both touchdowns and caught four passes for 34 more, finishing with 86 all-purpose yards.

Quarterback Keely Watson completed 21 of 38 passes for 215 yards. He did not throw a touchdown, but he did not throw an interception either, which on this day was the more important number. DJ Maultsby led the Bulldogs with five catches for 57 yards, and Malaqhi Jones added two catches for 54, including a 35-yarder.

Jackson was perfect, hitting from 28, 46 and 34 yards. In a game where SC State did not reach the end zone after halftime, his nine points were the cushion.

The defense, though, is the story. Kwantre Harry led the team with six tackles. Jadin Jones had five tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack, and Jaiden Kimble added three tackles, two for loss and a sack. Brown and Evans had the interceptions, Dixon had the fumble recovery, and the unit finished with seven tackles for loss and 10 quarterback hurries.

For Norfolk State, Golmond completed 17 of 35 passes for 162 yards with two interceptions and was sacked twice. He added 38 rushing yards. Brevin Caldwell caught six passes for 80 yards, and Jalyn Daniels ran 12 times for 51 yards, including a 34-yard burst that was the longest run of the game.

Rontravious Perry led the Spartans' defense with nine tackles and the team's only sack. Brenden Thompson had eight tackles and Nasir Bashir had seven.

The stats that matter

On paper, this was closer than the score. SC State outgained Norfolk State just 321 to 279, and the Spartans actually won the ground battle, 117 rushing yards to 106, while averaging 4.2 yards per carry to the Bulldogs' 3.2.

The numbers that decided it were somewhere else.

Turnovers: SC State 0, Norfolk State 3. The Bulldogs turned those takeaways into nine points on short fields.

Red zone: SC State scored on all three of its trips. Norfolk State, by the official count, never had a red zone possession.

Third downs: SC State converted 8 of 18. Norfolk State converted 4 of 15, and it was flagged 10 times for 90 yards.

Norfolk State moved the ball between the 20s and kept stopping itself before it mattered. The box score (opens in a new tab) has the full drive chart.

What it means

SC State has now won five straight in the series, dating to Norfolk State's 42-38 win in Orangeburg on Nov. 19, 2022. The Spartans did take something from this one, though. The 22 points were the fewest SC State has scored against Norfolk State since a 20-17 overtime win in 2019. The Bulldogs had scored at least 38 in each of the four meetings since, including 53 in Orangeburg in 2024 and 51 in Norfolk last season. Norfolk State's recap (opens in a new tab) leans into that point.

For third-year head coach Chennis Berry, the bigger picture is the three-peat chase, and this was a clean first step. SC State's recap (opens in a new tab) has the Bulldogs' side. Next on the schedule was a Thursday night trip to Morgan State in Baltimore on Oct. 29.

Next on the schedule for Norfolk State was a game against Delaware State at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Saturday, Oct. 31, the second straight year the two programs met at the home of the Eagles. Both teams were 0-1 in league play at the time.

The last word

Norfolk State will look at this film and see a defense that held the champs to 22 points and a return man who keeps finding the end zone. It will also see three giveaways, zero red zone trips and six visits to SC State territory that produced nothing.

The Bulldogs did not need to be spectacular. They needed to be clean, and against a team that kept beating itself, clean was plenty.

Sources: SC State Athletics, Norfolk State Athletics recap and box score. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: SC State Athletics.