FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – The Fayetteville State Broncos took advantage of several special teams miscues by the Benedict Tigers and held off a second-half rally by the Tigers to take a 35-21 victory in the season opener for both teams on Saturday night.

"They took advantage of our mistakes, and the score is what it is," said Benedict head coach Mike White. "There's not a lot I can say with the way we played. A lot of things we did tonight, I've seen in practice, and we've practiced, especially this week, kind of like we played. I'm disappointed, but it lets me know what we've got to work on."

The Broncos jumped out to a 33-0 lead, thanks to scoring a touchdown and two safeties from mistakes on Benedict's punting unit, primarily the long snap. After having issues with that problem last season, White said the team had worked hard to clean up that facet of the game.

"That caught me completely by surprise," White said. "I thought our snappers had a real good camp and we thought that was something we had put behind us. But that's something we've got to go back and work again. And the punter holding onto the ball, that was another sore spot we had last year. Those things we've still got to work on."

Fayetteville State scored first on a 34-yard field goal after a 79-yard drive. On the ensuing possession, Benedict quarterback Phillip Brown fumbled and Fayetteville State scored on a 20-yard fumble return for a 10-0 lead. The Tigers got the ball back and were forced into a punt. The Broncos scooped up the bad snap and scored on a six-yard fumble recovery to jump ahead 17-0 before the first quarter was over.

In the second quarter, the Tigers got burned for a 68-yard touchdown by the Broncos, and another fourth down punting long snap mistake gave the Broncos a safety and a 26-0 lead at the half.

In the third quarter, another turnover on a punting situation gave the Broncos the ball in good field position. Three plays later, the Broncos scored on an 8-yard touchdown pass for a 33-0 lead.

Myquerris McGrier returned the ensuing kickoff 76 yards to spark the Tigers, and Brown found Raylen Elzy in the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown pass and put Benedict on the scoreboard.

On Fayetteville State's next possession, Micah Levine sacked FSU quarterback Collyn Anderson and forced a fumble. Collins Tensley scooped up the loose ball and raced 45 yards for the score, cutting the lead to 33-14. Fayetteville State got two more points from a safety on another punt snap that went out the back of the end zone.

Benedict made it 35-21 in the fourth quarter when Trini Charlton recovered a Fayetteville State fumble for a touchdown with 11:22 still remaining in the game. But the Tigers could not find the end zone again.

"I thought we played hard, and I thought we hung in there and fought and didn't give up," White said. "You can build on that, but we've got a long way to go."

The Tigers were held to just 74 yards of total offense on the night, while the Benedict defense held Fayetteville State to 195 yards of offense. Brown was 9-of-19 for 64 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, and was sacked five times. Tensley and Amari Andrews led the defense with nine tackles each.

The Tigers will look to get ready for next week's home opener against Johnson C. Smith at 6 p.m.