Late score helps Albany State put away Clark-Atlanta

ALBANY — Ta’Keevian Harris tried everything he could to get into the end zone.

On a critical third-and-1 play from the Clark-Atlanta 29-yard line, the former Westover standout caught a short pass and turned it upfield and fought until getting tackled at the three.

Two plays later on a quarterback bootleg, quarterback Caleb Edmonds scored on a two-yard run give Albany State a 10-point lead with 4:34 left in the game.

The decisive touchdown finally put away pesky Clark-Atlanta Saturday afternoon and the Rams won a hard-fought 17-7 contest on homecoming at the Albany State University Coliseum before 10,273.

“I really felt like I needed some more milk,” said Harris, who finished with two catches for 37 yards. “I had everything I needed, I was open, but to get caught on the three-yard line, I knew my teammates were going to come back and make it up for me. I was just thinking about making up for those little dropped balls earlier.”

Harris’ catch was gutsy considering the Rams (4-3, 3-1 SIAC) needed something positive to finally put away the Panthers, who with a victory, could have captured the SIAC East Division. Instead, Albany State now sits in the driver’s seat with games left against Benedict and Fort Valley State in the annual Fountain City Classic.

A victory over Benedict in Augusta Saturday will vault ASU into the SIAC Championship Game for the fourth straight season.

After Albany State took a 3-0 lead on Emilio Maldonado’s 35-yard field goal with 4:43 left in the opening quarter, Clark took a 7-3 lead just before halftime with its only touchdown.

But Albany State answered on its opening drive of the second half, putting together an impressive nine-play, 91-yard drive that culminated with McKinley Habersham scoring on a 27-yard touchdown pass from Edmonds. It gave the Rams a 10-7 advantage, then the defense kept Clark from scoring the rest of the game.

“The last two games, we haven’t done what we needed to in the second half in reference to scoring points,” head coach Dan Land said. “But today, the guys shut them down from scoring in the second half and we scored twice, which afforded us (the opportunity) to win the game.”

The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for Clark (5-3, 3-3), who was held to just 263 yards of total offense. The Panthers managed just 103 in the final two quarters.

Albany State, meanwhile, finished with 366 yards, including 232 yards passing from Edmonds on 16 of 36. He threw four passes to Quadrey Simmons for 87 yards, including a 41-yarder early in the game that set up Maldonado’s field goal.

But the victory wasn’t secured until Edmonds’ late score.

“We knew if we didn’t win this game, there wasn’t going to be a championship,” Harris said.

Land was proud of his team’s performance, especially in the second half. However, he said it was a little too close.

“Two games left and none of them are going to be easy,” he said. “We’re not going to make them easy. I guess not making them easy is our motto. We’re going to continue to grind and believe it or not, each week we are getting better as a team.”

Good enough to keep Rams in the hunt for the conference title.

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