A Disappointing Performance by the Hornets Defense

What is wrong with the Hornets defense? Are they afraid to tackle? Do they keep getting burned by the offensive line? Do they stay on the field too long ? Did they allowed too many big plays for big yards?

All the questions were answered in the Hornets 38-21 home defeat at the hands of South Carolina State.

The Hornets defense were off to a great start in the 1st quarter by forcing South Carolina State to fumble the football twice deep into Hornets territory.

However, from the 2nd quarter through the 4th quarter, the Hornets defense went to sleep in a hurry creating a bunch of gaps for Bulldog quarterback Malcolm Long to throw some great passes to nine different receivers, run for the first downs, also allowed his teammate running back Chris Merrill to run 171 yards on 26 carries and one touchdown.

The Hornets defense has allowed a total of 464 offensive including 253 yards on the ground for a total of 24 points.

I bet the Hornets defensive coordinator Ray Petty is going to have sleepless nights once again just like that Bethune-Cookman game and the Morgan State game last month. What can the hornets defense do to help the Hornets offense? Something tell me they have a lot of work to do throughout the rest of this season and the off-season before the 2011 season returns. Besides next year the Hornets defense is only going to lose three seniors on defense so I won't bash on the Hornets defense too much but they need to find in fill the holes they created in order to create turnovers and less yards.

Plenty of Tricks and Treats for Hornet Fall Sports

There were plenty of tricks and treats for Delaware State Hornets sports on Halloween Weekend. Now the question is where do start with the tricks (bad news) or the treats (good news).

Lets start with the treats for DSU Sports:

Lady Hornets Volleyball

Friday October 29

It was a great historic home win for the lady hornets volleyball team as they snap UMES's 36 MEAC match winning streak by winning 3-2 in five sets (18-25, 25-21, 21-25, 25-21, 15-13). For University of Maryland Eastern Shore it was their 1st loss since November 9, 2006 against Morgan State.

The Lady hornets had a two big advantages during their win by outhitting the Hawks with a .254 hitting percentage (61 kills/25 errors/142 attacks) to the Hawks .201 hitting percentage (58 kills/29 errors/144 attacks). Also DSU had 11 blocks to the Hawks six in order to secured the victory. This should gain even more momentum throughout the rest of the season for lady hornets volleyball.

Men's and Lady Hornets Cross Country
Saturday October 30
Plenty of treats to go around for the men's and lady hornets cross country team as they both finished in the top 10 at the 2010 MEAC Cross Country Championships

The lady hornets finished 4th in the standings thanks to a great performance by All-MEAC honoree Dashera Richardson who finished 7th out of the 78 runners with a impressive time of 18:41.70 in the 5K course.

Meanwhile the Hornet men finished 6th in the standings thanks to All-MEAC honoree Andre McDonald who finished 14th in the 8K course with a career best of 26:28.30.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There were also some tricks as the Hornets come up empty handed in their defeats.

Hornets Football

October 30

The Hornets football team wanted to make a statement at home versus the two time MEAC Champion South Carolina State. Instead that statement was wipe off cleanly from the start in a 38-21 defeat.

DSU started strong in the 1st quarter when the Hornets scored but since then, the Bulldogs outscored the Hornets 38-14 from the 2nd quarter to the 4th quarter. The only bright spot for Delaware State was Justin Wilson who had a career field day nine catches for 131 yards and a touchdown.

The Hornets defense allowed the Bulldogs to racked up 464 yards on offense. That's a chunk full load of yards for a defense who is last in the MEAC in the giving up yards per game.

Lady Hornets Volleyball
October 31
I guess Howard University wanted more candy than the lady hornets volleyball team because DSU lost 3-2 on the road. The Hornets lost the fifth and deciding game thanks to six attack errors.

Erica Tajchman had made 1,000th kill in a losing effort for the lady hornets.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maybe its was all the ghosts and goblins they tried to haunt DSU Sports during Halloween week, but no matter what they will always call the ghostbusters. In other words Hornets will look to wrap fall sports on a strong positive note in November.