Ferguson has career game on Saturday

Box Score
CHARLOTTE, November 18, 2006 – North Carolina A&T head coach Lee Fobbs knows what kind of challenges face him and the Aggies in the off-season. What is the remedy to those challenges according to Fobbs? Hard Work.   

The Aggies showed signs of the hard work they will put in during the off-season as they gave S.C. State a tussle on Saturday before the Bulldogs broke the game open in a 41-19 win in the annual Rivalry Classic at Memorial Stadium in Charlotte in front of 10,126 screaming Aggies and Bulldogs.

“It’s time to go to work now,’’ said Fobbs. “We have a very important off-season coming up, I’m ready to go, our players are ready to go and my coaches are ready to go. We’re looking forward to it because we know what it is going to take to get there, and we’re willing to do what it takes to get there.”

Michael Ferguson led the Aggies with a career-best 175 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries. Ferguson’s day included a 75-yard touchdown run, which was the longest run since 2001 when Maurice Hicks had a 78-yard run.

His 175-yard ranks as the 15^th best rushing performance in Aggies history. Ferguson was named the Aggies most valuable player in the game. Ferguson’s counterpart, S.C. State senior DeShawn Baker had 153 yards and a touchdown and was named S.C. State’s MVP. William Ford added 11 carries for 62 yards and two touchdowns.

After giving up 13 points in the first 3 ½ minutes of the game, the Aggies fought back to within a touchdown late in the third quarter thanks to a 12-play, 60-yard drive that was highlighted by a 12-yard touchdown run by Ferguson on a 4^th-and-2. Ferguson’s touchdown pulled the Aggies to within seven at 20-13.

Baker helped the Bulldogs respond with runs of 21 and 15 on the Bulldogs’ next drive. The biggest play, however, came on a 3^rd-and-goal when it appeared the Aggies had a chance at an interception in the end zone. But somehow S.C. State quarterback Cleveland McCoy lobbed the pass just over the head of an Aggies defender to Darris Jackson for the touchdown pass and a 27-13 lead.

After an Aggies three and out, Baker rushed for 27 yards and McCoy had an 18-yard run on an option play to set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Baker. Before Ferguson’s 75-yard run, McCoy put the Aggies away with a 47-yard touchdown run.

The final score, however, doesn’t indicate how hard the Aggies worked to get back into Saturday’s season finale. The Bulldogs had a 20-0 lead after the first quarter. On the Aggies opening drive of the second quarter, the Aggies began gaining momentum. They overcame the adversity of having a touchdown called back on an offensive pass interference by Andre Garth.

On the next play, a 3-and-23 from the Bulldogs 32-yard line, Aggies quarterback Wayne Campbell found Curtis Walls open across the middle for a 21-yard gain to the Bulldogs 11. Fobbs and the Aggies decided to go for it on 4^th-and-2 from the 11 as Michael Christen ran up the middle for two-yard gain. After the measurement, the Aggies had a first-and-goal from the nine that Campbell and Walls turned into a 9-yard touchdown pass on a crossing pattern.

The Aggies defense held S.C. State to just 33 yards of offense in the second quarter to hold the lead to 20-7 at the half.

“I think you saw the dedication these young men have to this program out there on that field today,’’ said Fobbs. “They could have walked in here and easily rolled over, but they came here to play, and I told them I was proud of them.”