LEXINGTON, Va. – In what appeared to be a promising opening drive by VMI, quickly faded to mere dream as Chandler Wilson’s deep pass was intercepted by Devon Allen.
While VMI and Norfolk State played a scoreless opening quarter, it became clear that the Spartans were one step ahead. They found a weakness in the VMI secondary and exploited it multiple times on the far sideline.
Jacquez Jones started it off with a 25 yard touchdown catch in the second quarter. Then, Norfolk State scored two deep touchdowns in similar fashion--on a wheel route with quarterback Jalen Daniels throwing on the run. On the receiving end was Tavion Morris (an 80 yard touchdown) and the aforementioned Jones (56 yard touchdown). The Spartans built a 19-0 halftime lead.
Brady Hammonds was under center in the second half and brought a bit of spark. He guided the Keydets down the field with passing connections to Julio DaSilva and Patrick Henry High School grad Trace Pedigo. That led to the Keydets first score of the game-- a career-high 54 yard field goal for Caden Beck.
The Keydets were poised to come within one possession of the Spartans 19-3 advantage but Daylan Long changed those plans with an interception returned for touchdown in the third quarter. Norfolk State went on to the 32-10 victory, sending VMI to an 0-4 record.
“I talked to the team after the game about the necessity of sticking together and staying united to fight our way through this,” said VMI head coach Danny Rocco. “We’re going to continue to work hard, it’s all we can do. We played 14 rookies last week, and we probably played about the same today. We’re a little banged up, but we have the open date, the bye week. We’ve got to take a time out, take a step back and reassess before conference play.”