The Aggies ran wild on Howard University Saturday afternoon and spoiled their homecoming with a 30-19 victory. Freshman running back Dontavious Payne had a career best of 113 yards rushing and two touchdowns off of 21 carries. He is the Aggies first 100-yard rusher of the season. Sophomore Mike Mayhew added two touchdowns of his own and 54 yards rushing.

It was a game where A&T took advantage of turnovers by the Bisons’ and moved the ballbehind a strong rushing game. They also showed huge improvement in the red zone scoring each of the four times they made it inside of Howard’s 20-yard-line. The defense continued to show its aggressiveness in forcing turnovers. 

Early on, the Aggies offense may have been affected by having last week off as they looked a little out of sync. They went 3-and-out on their first possession and the second possession resulted in a fumble that gave Howard the ball at midfield. A&T would surrender the first seven points of the game six plays later on a 7-yard run. A&T’s next two possessions also went 3-and-out.

“We could really feel that bye-week early on,” said head coach Alonzo Lee.

The offense looked revamped to start the second quarter. A 9-play, 80 -yard drive capped off by a Mayhew touchdown tied the game at seven. Howard scored the next six points on two field goals and went into the half winning 13-7.

“I was very upset with out first half performance,” Lee said.  We actually ran from the locker room, down the tunnel through the field and I told them we didn’t wanna stop running until the end of the fourth quarter.”

Apparently Lee’s foruth quarter pep talk worked. It was the last time the Bisons’ would hold the lead as the Aggies outscored them in the third quarter 10-0. Three of those points came from a botched snap on a punt attempt which led to a 32-yard field goal by sophomore wide receiver Wallace Miles. It was the first field goal make of his career and helped A&T to take a 17-13 lead into the fourth quarter.

“When we went out there in the first half the live action got to us a little bit,” Lee said. “

“As we got back in tune with the speed of the game we were able to make some improvements. We had to up the tempo and play our brand of football.”

Howard began the fourth quarter with another bad snap on a punt and gave A&T the ball on the 5-yard line. The next play was a touchdown rush from Payne to put the Aggies ahead 24-13. The defense continued to stiffen down the stretch but eventually Sophomore safety Justin Ferrell intercepted two passes to seal the deal.

“We came out flat which allowed them to run the football a little bit,” said Ferrell. “We had to get serious and buckle down to stop the run. That forced them to pass the ball, and that’s not really their strong suit.”

In front of a capacity homecoming crowd of 7,086 in inclement weather, A&T walked out of Greene Stadium with a 5-3 overall record and improve to 3-2 in the MEAC. And the rain was a hurdle Lee knew his team might face as he prepared them during the bye-week.

“We were use to running in that rain,” Lee said.  ” We were ready for that rain. It was a blessing for us. The rain was there because we had prepared in it two days in a row in that off week.”

The Agggies will host Bethune-Cookman at 1:30pm.

• Prince Askew