By Chic Riebel
NORFOLK
In the final minutes of Saturday’s season finale with Winston-Salem State, Dante Barnes wasn’t thinking about the possibility that Norfolk State could win its 20th game in three seasons or the fact that it was Senior Day.
The junior cornerback from Kempsville just knew his pass interference penalty had helped keep the upstart Rams’ last-gasp drive alive.
“Even though I felt it was a bad call, I thought I had to do something to help end the game,” Barnes said.
And so he did. With 39 seconds left, Barnes picked off a Jean Julimiste pass at the NSU 26 to preserve the Spartans’ 28-21 victory over a Winston-Salem team that did not play like a one-win outfit.
The Rams (1-10) were fired up, and not just because they were playing their last game as a transitional Division I team before moving back to Division II next year. The mid-week firing of head coach Kermit Blount, who had been at Winston-Salem for 17 years, provided additional motivation.
“We were playing for coach Blount today, we wanted him to win his last one,” said Omar Kizzie, who scored on a 9-yard run and a 12-yard pass. “We thought he was done wrong. We just couldn’t pull it off.”
Not even with a lot of help from the Spartans. Norfolk State (7-4) committed a season-high 15 penalties, turned the ball over four times and allowed the Rams – playing without their top two quarterbacks due to injury – to score 10 points above their season average.
Winston-Salem might have been able to prevent NSU from ending the season with a four-game win streak if it didn’t fumble the ball away three times in Spartans’ territory and miss a pair of chip-shot field goals.
“The way their kids played was a tribute to coach Blount,” NSU coach Pete Adrian said. “We knew they would play with a lot of emotion. But overall, we did what we had to do.”
The Spartans survived primarily because senior safety Terrell Whitehead returned an interception 58 yards for a touchdown to open the scoring and an inconsistent offense managed to generate just enough big plays to hold off the Rams.
Maury graduate DeAngelo Branche delivered two of them, skirting the right side for TD runs of 10 and 19 yards while rushing for 118 yards on 24 carries. Senior quarterback Dennis Brown and wide receiver Chris Bell furnished another – a 67-yard touchdown pass that broke a 21-21 tie with 1:26 left in the third quarter.
“DeAngelo had to carry the load when they were focusing on Chris quite a bit,” Adrian said.
Bell, a junior from Granby, managed to catch four passes for 124 yards and extend his streak of games with a touchdown reception to six despite the Rams’ best efforts and some struggles on Brown’s part .
Normally a 58-percent passer, Brown completed just 12 of 28 passes and was intercepted three times, including an attempted screen pass that was returned 61 yards for a touchdown by Joshua Newkirk.
“We had a little miscommunication going on throughout the game,” said Brown, who threw for 260 yards despite his problems. “On that interception on the screen, I was trying to make a play I should not have tried to make. It was my last game and I guess I was trying too hard to make a big
play.
“But I think I settled down and stayed strong. I never doubted we’d win.”
Chic Riebel, (757) 446-2367,
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