JC Smith falls in home finale. Charlotte HBCU upended by rival Fayetteville State
The momentous win streak has ended for Johnson C. Smith football.
In the historically Black university near uptown Charlotte’s final regular-season home game on Saturday afternoon at Irwin Belk Complex, it was Fayetteville State that got in front early during the Golden Bulls’ 27-0 loss.
The Broncos used a pair of first-half touchdowns to open a commanding lead and hold off J.C. Smith, securing Fayetteville State’s eighth consecutive victory against the Golden Bulls.
While no longer perfect, No. 16 J.C. Smith (8-1, 5-1 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association) is still on its best start to a season in school history. It hadn’t put together an eight-win season since 1975, and the program’s seven consecutive victories to open the 1969 campaign previously marked its longest streak.
One game remains before the postseason: the Golden Bulls’ regular season finale in Salisbury against Livingstone College.
“That’s a championship caliber team,” Golden Bulls head coach Maurice Flowers said of Fayetteville State. “They’ve been to the past six CIAA championships. Coach Richard Hayes Jr., hats off to him, making sure his team was ready to play.
“As the head coach, I take all of this one. I didn’t get my team ready to play. We were flat. We just didn’t play well.”
JC Smith fell behind early against the Broncos
The Golden Bulls, who are ranked No. 1 in a poll among Division II HBCUs, gave up a pair of touchdowns in the first half.
Fayetteville State redshirt senior tight end Kameron King hauled in a 7-yard touchdown pass to cap a 16-play, 90-yard series and get the Broncos on the board first. They struck again with a 10-yard scoring rush in the second quarter from running back DJ Alston Jr., who played at Garner Magnet High School outside Raleigh, and took a 14-0 advantage at halftime.
Quarterback Joe Owens, a native of Greenville, S.C., who guided Wren High School to its first 4A state championship, finished with 233 yards on 24-of-32 passing for Fayetteville State. He took it in himself for a 1-yard score that capped an 11-play drive in the third quarter, putting the game out of reach with a 21-0 lead.
Graduate student Julius Cobbs finished the Broncos’ offense off with a 53-yard return on a pick-6, lifting them to their 27-0 victory.
Notable
▪ J.C. Smith hasn’t beaten Fayetteville State in nine years. The Broncos entered Saturday carrying a seven-game win streak against the Golden Bulls, who have only previously beaten them three times in 22 meetings since 2000.
▪ The Golden Bulls, at No. 16, are the highest-ranked CIAA school in the AFCA Division II coaches’ poll. Virginia Union, which J.C. Smith beat in a 21-16 victory in September, is receiving votes.
▪ J.C. Smith was shut out for the first time since the 2018 season, when it was blanked in a 36-0 loss to Wingate in the season opener.
They said it
“Here’s the thing: All the goals that we set for ourselves at the beginning of the season, they’re still there. We never said, ‘Hey, we want to go undefeated.’ We never said that. What we said is that we want to put ourselves into a position to have an opportunity in the CIAA championship. Well, guess what? It’s still there.
”We’re going to have a good week of practice, and we’re going to get ready to go play our rival and look to win that game, and go to the CIAA championship game.” — Flowers
Up next?
Johnson C. Smith has one regular-season game remaining, on the road at Livingstone College in Salisbury at 2 p.m. Saturday. Fayetteville State will travel to face Winston-Salem State at 1 p.m. Saturday.
This story was originally published November 2, 2024 at 3:47 PM.
