JCSU Football Finds Déjà Vu in Another Late Win Over Fayetteville State
Johnson C. Smith (JCSU) football has spent the past four seasons building its HBCU football program “Brick x Brick.” Against Fayetteville State, the Golden Bulls keep finding out exactly how much that foundation can hold.
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On Saturday, the answer came on fourth-and-four.
With JCSU trailing by one, its home opener slipping into another painful chapter in the rivalry. Quarterback Damien Mazil found Brian Lane for 24 yards to keep the season’s most important drive alive. Kamarro Edmonds finished it with a six-yard touchdown run with 49 seconds remaining, lifting the reigning CIAA champions to a 20-14 win at the Irwin Belk Complex.
It was a new game with a familiar ending – Déjà Vu, Part II, if you will.
The victory improved JCSU to 3-1 overall, and 2-0 in CIAA play heading into its bye week. It also gave the Golden Bulls consecutive wins over Fayetteville State for the first time since the 1998 and 1999 seasons.
More than that, it added another layer to a matchup that has become a bedrock of Brick x Brick with JCSU Football and a measuring stick for the program Maurice Flowers has built in Charlotte.
Fourth down tells the story
In 2023, JCSU went to Fayetteville still trying to prove it could stand toe-to-toe with the CIAA’s standard. Trailing by a touchdown with fewer than two minutes remaining, the Golden Bulls faced fourth-and-14. The pass sailed incomplete, Fayetteville State took a knee, and JCSU left with a 14-7 loss.
One year later, the Broncos came to Charlotte and handed an 8-0 JCSU team its first loss of the season. A 27-0 shutout that abruptly changed the trajectory of a historic year. In the aftermath, the message captured by Brick x Brick was blunt: once you become the hunted, “every play is the big play.”
Then came 2025.
In an episode appropriately titled “Déjà Vu,” JCSU returned to Fayetteville and again found its season resting on a late fourth down. This time, Kelvin Durham scrambled for the conversion. Bobby Smith scored moments later, giving the Golden Bulls a 17-14 win that helped propel them toward their first CIAA championship since 1969.
Saturday brought the same tension back to Charlotte – only with a younger roster, a championship target on JCSU’s back and a different group asked to make the winning play.
They did.
JCSU answers when the game turns
Fayetteville State took a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter after a 15-play, 72-yard drive that lasted nearly eight minutes. JCSU answered behind Edmonds, who broke a 29-yard run before finishing the possession with a five-yard touchdown.
Alexis Rosario-Beltran’s 31-yard field goal as time expired gave the Golden Bulls a 10-7 halftime lead, but JCSU repeatedly left the door open.
The Broncos recovered a fumble on the second-half kickoff at the JCSU 17-yard line, only to come away empty after a penalty and a missed 42-yard field goal. Later, the Golden Bulls drove 76 yards in 16 plays and held the ball for more than nine minutes, but settled for another Rosario-Beltran field goal, leaving them up 13-7.
Fayetteville State finally made JCSU pay with 7:04 remaining. Quarterback Jamir Dismukes escaped for a 30-yard touchdown on third-and-six, giving the Broncos a 14-13 lead and forcing the Golden Bulls to respond.
There was no panic.
JCSU took over at its own 25 and methodically moved downfield. On fourth-and-four from the Fayetteville State 36, Mazil stood in and delivered a defining 24-yard completion to Lane. Edmonds scored four plays later, turning the right corner and reaching the end zone with 49 seconds left.
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Fayetteville State advanced to its own 46 on the final possession, but D’Andre Martin’s sack brought the game to an end.
“We grew up some today,” Flowers said afterward.
A program win before the bye
The box score reflected the physical identity JCSU needed to survive the rivalry.
The Golden Bulls outgained Fayetteville State 379-252, rushed for 215 yards and controlled possession for 33:22. They produced 22 first downs to the Broncos’ 11 and scored on all four of their trips into the red zone.
Fabian Duncan remained the engine of the offense, carrying 31 times for 157 yards while adding 49 receiving yards. It marked his fourth consecutive game with at least 140 rushing yards. Edmonds supplied the finishing power with 55 yards and two touchdowns on nine carries.
Mazil completed 9 of 18 passes for 164 yards without a turnover. Lane caught six passes for 108 yards, none bigger than the fourth-down reception that extended the winning drive.
The defense matched that resilience. JCSU held Fayetteville State to 119 rushing yards and 4-of-12 on third down. Vincent Hill led the Golden Bulls with 11 tackles, while Martin’s lone sack arrived on the final play.
JCSU was not clean. It lost a fumble, had multiple promising drives end without touchdowns, and allowed Fayetteville State to stay close enough to take the lead late. But that is what made the finish matter.
The 2025 championship team carried more than 30 seniors. This version of JCSU is younger, still developing chemistry and learning how to carry the weight that comes with the crown. Saturday, it absorbed a fourth-quarter punch from one of the CIAA’s toughest programs and answered with a 12-play, 75-yard championship drive.
Flowers called it a “guts win” and a “program win.” Both descriptions fit.
In 2023, JCSU could not convert on fourth down in Fayetteville. In 2024, it learned how quickly a perfect season could turn; in 2025, it finally crossed the rivalry’s last threshold on the road.
Now, as the reigning CIAA champion, JCSU has done it again at home.
Different season. Different players. Same rival. Same late-game test.
Déjà vu – only now, the Golden Bulls expect to finish the story.
Watch the championship journey in Brick x Brick with JCSU Football, now streaming on Prime Video.
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This story was originally published September 20, 2026 at 10:29 AM.
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