Sept. 11, 2004
Winston-Salem, NC - The Winston-Salem State University Rams dropped their third consecutive game of the 2004 season, falling to 0-3 in the process, as they were handed a loss by the 23rd-ranked Tusculum Pioneers by the score of 37-20. Despite racking up 356 total yards of offense, the Rams were unable to stop the Pioneer's passing attack and gave up 463 yards in the loss.
The first quarter of play would be witness to only one scoring drive as the Pioneers strung together a six-play, 79-yard drive that was capped with a two-yard touchdown pass from Tony Colston to Lebron Johnson to give Tusculum a 7-0 lead that they would never relinquish.
The Pioneers then recorded two more scoring drives, both in the early stages of the second quarter to take a 21-0 lead before the Rams would reach pay dirt.
Trailing 21-0 the Rams got on the board when a scrambling Josh McGee (Sr./QB/Winston-Salem, NC) found Stan Wright (So./TE/Durham, NC) in the back of the endzone for a seven-yard touchdown catch.
What looked to be a momentum booster for the Rams turned into disaster as Matt Hind's (So./K/Clemmons, NC) kick was blocked by Ra'Shun Judge and scooped up by Dontavius Clark who returned the kick for a defensive point after touchdown. The tandem has accounted for five blocked kicks in 2004 and have returned three of them for scores (one versus the Rams, and twice in the first week of the season versus Concord College).
It would get no better for the Rams as starting quarterback Josh McGee would leave the game with a severely bruised toe and would not return, forcing redshirt freshman quarterback Monte Purvis (Fr./QB/Winston-Salem, NC) into action.
Purvis led the Rams into the Pioneer red-zone as the first half of play was coming to a close as the Rams looked to cut into the Tusculum lead, however an errant Purvis pass was intercepted on the Pioneer one-yard line.
The second half of play opened with another Pioneer touchdown, this time of the 56-yard variety as Trae Johnson caught his third and final touchdown of the evening, increasing the Pioneer lead to 30-6.
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The Rams answered back only five minutes later as Purvis and sophomore running back Jed Bines (So./RB/Winston-Salem, NC) engineered a 10-play, 73-yard scoring drive that was capped with a Bines 10-yard touchdown run to cut the deficit to 18 points at 30-12. The WSSU jubilation was short-lived as the Pioneers stormed down the field and capped their final scoring drive of the evening as Tony Colston tallied his career-high fifth touchdown pass of the game, hitting Jonathan Brewer for a 35-yard score. With 375-yards passing, Colston also recorded a career-high for passing yardage in a game.
One of the bright spots on the evening for the Rams was Monte Purvis' first career touchdown pass as he found Brandon Free from four yards out to trim the Tusculum lead to what would be a game-final 37-20.
With the win, the Pioneers improve to 2-1 overall (0-0 SAC) and are headed into a bye-week next Saturday before returning to action in SAC conference play on September 25th, 2004. The Rams fall to 0-3 overall (0-0 CIAA) and will return to play on September 18th, 2004 at 1:30 pm versus Virginia Union. The game time for the Rams' CIAA-opener has been changed to a 1:30 pm start time from the originally-scheduled 6:00 pm.
For more information on WSSU football, or to arrange interviews with coaches and/or players, contact the WSSU Office of Sports Information at (336) 750-2143.
