BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Daniel Duhart threw for 301 yards and three scores and Malcolm Cyrus rushed for 127 to lead Alabama State to a 31-7 win over Alabama A&M in the 72nd State Farm Magic City Classic.
“This was a really good win for this team,” Head Coach Reggie Barlow said. “We were real sloppy today. Defensively we kept jumping offsides and offensively we were sputtering there for a while. We found a way to make some plays and we found a way to get it done even though we didn’t play the way we liked.”
Duhart struggled early only connecting on four of his first 10 attempts, before settling down in the second quarter and going nine for 16 the rest of the way.
ASU held a slim 14-0 lead before a Kourtney Berry intercepted a pass early in the third quarter and the Hornets came up with a fumble recovery on their own one yard line to stop an AAMU scoring threat.
Neither team scored in the third quarter, but Duhart hooked up with Earl Lucas from 39 yards out early in the fourth quarter to put ASU up 21-0 and in reality, put the game out of reach.
After giving up the Bulldogs lone score with 11 minutes left in the game, ASU scored ended the scoring with two more scores. Bobby Wenzig connected from 28 yards out and Rodney Cross scored on a two yard run with just under four minutes left.
ASU finished the game with 451 yards against the SWAC’s top defensive team. ASU rushed for 150 yards, marking the first time the Hornets did not break the 200 yard rushing plateau this season.
Defensively, ASU held AAMU to 334 yards while forcing three turnovers.
“We had some guys to play really combative today and had a lot of guys step up on defense,” Barlow said. Our guys took the challenge of playing hard and making some plays.”
Following the game Duhart was named the game’s Offensive Most Valuable Player and Derrick Billups was named the Defensive MVP. Billups finished the game with two sacks and two tackles for lost yardage. He also forced a fumble and recovered a fumble to go along with his quarterback hurry.
“It was a good win after a week off, but we have a lot of work to do,” Barlow said. “We want to get our offense back on the pace they were on before the week off and we need for the defense to continue to show improvement.”
After a scoreless first quarter, ASU went into the locker room with a 14-0 lead after scoring two second quarter touchdowns. The first came on a 15 yard pass from Duhart to Jarrett Neely to complete a nine-play 74 yard drive to put ASU up 7-0.
The second score came with time running out in the half when Duhart hit DeMario Bell, again from 15 yards out with only 10 seconds left on the clock.
The win for ASU was their sixth consecutive win running their overall record to 6-2 and moving to 6-1 in Southwestern Athletic Conference action. AAMU falls to 2-6 and 2-4 in the SWAC.
