Benedict travels to Morehouse College Saturday

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Benedict College Tigers hit the road this week, still searching for their first road win of the season. The Tigers travel to Atlanta to take on Morehouse College at 2 p.m.

“It’s a challenge for us, no question about it. We’re 4-0 at home and 0-2 on the road,” Benedict head football coach Mike White said. “We go to a Homecoming game and we know how our Homecoming was last week with the crowd, the noise, the band. It’s going to be an exciting atmosphere, but we’ve got to be able to finish that game, finish that fourth quarter.”

The Tigers lost two road games earlier this season in overtime. Benedict lost to Limestone 20-17 in overtime in the second game of the season. The Tigers had a 14-7 lead early in the fourth quarter before the Saints went on an 89-yard drive to tie the game. Benedict dropped a double-overtime contest, 31-28, at Fort Valley State. The Tigers rallied with two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to tie the game and had the ball in FVSU territory late in the contest, but the drive stalled. Benedict had an opportunity to win the game in the second overtime, but fumbled the ball to end the game.

White said the Tigers have learned how important it is to stay focused until the final play of the game.

“I thought the last two losses we had on the road this year, we played better in the fourth quarter, but we didn’t finish the game,” White said. “We’ve got to finish the game.”

Benedict will be up against another of the SIAC’s top offenses this week. The Maroon Tigers come into the contest with a 3-4 overall record and 1-2 in the SIAC, and have lost their last two games. Morehouse is back home for their Homecoming game after two weeks on the road. Morehouse is now the top passing offense in the conference, averaging 234.1 yards per game. Morehouse also sports the top pass defense in the league, allowing teams 143.4 yards through the air. White said both of those show that the Maroon Tigers pose a big challenge to the Tigers.

“They’ve got a very good passing game, a good scrambling quarterback who has a great arm and some of the best receivers in the conference,” White said. “Saturday will be similar to last Saturday where you’ve got to hold the big play of the passing game down.”

Morehouse quarterback Kivon Taylor has completed 118 of 210 passes for 1,319 yards and nine touchdowns. He also has thrown six interceptions. Amyr Smith is one of the top receivers in the league, averaging 4.6 receptions per game for 58.4 yards per game.

White knows the Tigers will be facing a tough Morehouse team that wants to play well in front of their alumni who are back to watch the Maroon Tigers.

“We have to pay close attention to a team that is probably excited about Homecoming and starving for a win. That’s what we’ve got to do, play a good fourth quarter,” White said.

Benedict is coming off a strong defensive effort last week, holding Clark Atlanta to just three points in a 14-3 victory. The Tigers held the Panthers, who entered the game as the top passing team in the league, to just 130 yards of total offense.

“This is an important game for us to see if we can be consistent another week in the pass defense,” White said. “It was great to play with good consistent pressure, and the coverage was there. Can we do that again? Having that week off paid some dividends. Let’s see if we can put back-to-back weeks together. I thought we played well overall and kept a pretty good offense out of the end zone.”

The Tigers will look to sophomore quarterback Christian Lisby to guide the offense once again. In his first appearance of the season last week, Lisby completed 20-of-30 passes for 200 yards. This week, he’ll be facing the SIAC’s top-rated defense in total defense (260.9 yards per game) and passing defense (143.4 yards per game).

“Christian did a good job of taking what they gave him, and it was probably our best passing day of the season,” White said. “I hope he can figure out the tough defense Morehouse has. The O-line has to do a good job of giving him time, the receivers have to do a good job like they did last week. I just hope he continues his good play.”

Benedict Athletics contributed to the writing of this article.