It’s difficult to imagine a more frustrating loss in Hampton University football history than Saturday night’s 33-30 double-overtime defeat to North Carolina A&T in Greensboro.
The Aggies erased a 20-10 deficit with less than a minute left in regulation, then won in the rivals’ 50th meeting — but their first in Coastal Athletic Association play.
After a penalty on the Pirates, a 41-yard touchdown pass from Noah Sanders to Thomas Brown made it 20-17 with 57 seconds remaining. A&T then recovered an onside kick and benefited from another flag on HU. Andrew Brown kicked a tying 37-yard field goal with 19 seconds remaining.
The teams traded touchdowns in the first overtime — Sanders’ 4-yard run and Isaiah Freeman’s 25-yard pass over the middle to Khaioz Watford. Each team kicked PATs.
The Pirates had the ball first in the second overtime and went nowhere on three downs, but Brett Starling made a 42-yard field goal. A&T soon scored the winning touchdown, Brown’s 4-yard run.
The first half ended 10-10, all square at 156 offensive yards apiece. It featured Freeman’s 29-yard TD pass to Tae’Shaun Johnson, which capped a 67-yard first-quarter drive.
HU went ahead 17-10 with a 58-yard drive whose eighth play was Freeman’s 2-yard run with 8:35 left in the third quarter. Starling’s 33-yard field goal made it 20-10 with 10:12 left.
Freeman finished with 129 yards on 20 rushes and completed 12 of 24 for 153 yards passing.
Hampton, whose travel itinerary was revised after a credible threat to campus prompted school closures Thursday and Friday, next will play Howard at 4 p.m. Sept. 20 in Washington. It will be the 100th meeting in the “Battle of the Real HU.”
