ATLANTA – With ESPN’s College Gameday in town, NC Central shocked the college football world by defeating the Alcorn State Braves in the MEAC/SWAC Challenge at Center Parc Stadium.
Alcorn State started off quickly by scoring the game’s first points on a touchdown pass from Felix Harper to Juan Anthony Jr. After that, it was nearly halftime until the next points were scored. NC Central got on the board with a six-yard run from Davius Richard. The teams went into the locker room tied at 7 at the half while the bands took the field.
The Eagles took the lead for the first time in the game five minutes into the second half. Richard scored another touchdown for the Eagles and the extra point was blocked. The Braves answered with a touchdown pass from Harper to Niko Duffy and the extra point to retake the lead going into the fourth quarter.
Not long after, Adrian Olivo added a field goal for NC Central to regain the lead that they would keep for the rest of the game. The highlight of the game came not long after when Brandon Codrington returned a punt for a 77-yard touchdown. Olivo made the extra point which brought the game to its final score of NC Central 23 to 14 over Alcorn State.
After the game, NC Central head coach Trei Oliver said, “It was good to finally get back out there. I thought it was a very competitive game. Both teams fought hard and it came down to the wire.” We had to control what we can control. Our emotions, our eyes were big. We talked about being disciplined. Everything was about us, not about them. We didn’t need to go back and forth on social media. The guys watched ESPN this morning and watched all of the United States of America pick Alcorn to win it. But it didn’t matter as long as people in our locker room believed.”
