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CONWAY, S.C. — The way N.C. A&T's offense failed to move the ball in the first half, a two-touchdown halftime deficit appeared insurmountable.

Outside of one second-half series, the Aggies did little but confirm that in the third and fourth quarters. A&T lost 28-7 to Coastal Carolina on the road Saturday night, leaving coach Alonzo Lee's team still searching for answers on offense.

"We have to execute better with our quarterbacks," Lee said. "We've been back and forth; we've shown spurts of doing really good things. And then, boom, we fall on our face. &ellipses; We're going to simplify a little bit more. We simplified some this week. We'll simplify a little more next week until we can get the nuts and the bolts."

Even with a scaled-back playbook, A&T (2-2 overall) quarterbacks Carlton Fears and Lewis Kindle struggled, overthrowing and undershooting receivers throughout the night.

Fears — who finished the game 7-of-22 with two interceptions — didn't help his cause of holding on to the quarterback job. His first pick, a second-quarter job by Coastal Carolina defensive back and North Carolina transfer Tavorris Jolly, looked all too easy for the CCU player, who barely moved to cause the turnover.

Kindle was inserted on the Aggies' next possession. But after three running plays, he drilled CCU (2-2) linebacker E.J. Brown in the chest with his first pass attempt. The Chanticleers squeezed a field goal out of that turnover.

In total, the two quarterbacks paired to complete just three of their 13 first-half attempts for 16 yards, helping Coastal to a 14-0 halftime lead. The quarterbacks continued to stumble the rest of the way, finishing the game a combined 8-of-27 with three interceptions.

Still, Fears isn't too worried about losing his job just yet.

"I feel like I'm still the guy and I can still get it done," he said. "That's my mindset. My mindset hasn't changed about that. I just want to do my part. That's the biggest thing. The biggest thing is that I want to win."

Whether Fears or Kindle establish themselves in the future, the team will likely develop with a much smaller playbook. Fears said the Aggies entered Saturday's game with essentially five running plays and five passing games. How much more it can shrink is still undecided.

"We've got a great athlete there," Lee said. "We've just got to get him in a position where he's comfortable. Evidently, he's not comfortable right now because we're seeing better play in practice than what we do out there on Saturdays."

The trick might be taking further advantage of the one bright spot from Saturday's loss. Larry Raper, the high-profile freshman from Shelby, entered the game with three receptions for 53 yards and a rush for 21 yards. He nearly matched the previous yardage on two third-quarter plays alone.

About 9 minutes into the second half, the speedster broke free of a pair of Coastal defensive backs and pulled down a 50-yard pass from Fears. On the next play, Raper took an end-around 9 yards into the end zone.

It fulfilled a pre-game promise he made to Jolly, the CCU cornerback and a former Shelby High teammate.

"I told him before the game 'I'm going to get my first touchdown against y'all,'" Raper said. "I wish it would have been a better outcome to (the game), but I'm glad I got my first touchdown."

Unfortunately for A&T, that was all the Aggies got against Coastal.

N.C. A&T 0 0 7 0 — 7
Coastal Carolina 0 14 0 14 — 28

CC—FG Durham 38
CC—FG Durham 19
CC—Childers 10 run (Duran pass from MacDowall)
NCAT—Raper 9 run (Courtney kick)
CC—Whitley 55 pass from MacDowall (Durham kick)
CC—Fraser 39 run (Durham kick)
A—7,367.

TEAM STATISTICS

First downs: N.C. A&T — 11, CC — 19
Rushes-yards: N.C. A&T — 33-138, CC — 50-304
Passing: N.C. A&T — 101, CC — 110
Comp-Att-Int: N.C. A&T — 8-27-3, CC — 6-20-2
Return Yards: N.C. A&T — 4, CC — 77
Punts-Avg.: N.C. A&T — 9-34.9, CC — 5-30.8
Fumbles-Lost: N.C. A&T — 2-0, CC — 0-0
Penalties-Yards: N.C. A&T — 10-105, CC — 10-100
Time of Possession: N.C. A&T — 27:11, CC — 32:49

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING
N.C. A&T — Mayhew 11-84, Raper 4-18, Payne 7-18, Kindle 3-10, Fears 8-8.
Coastal Carolina — O'Neal 23-130, Fraser 16-98, Childers 4-35, Whitener 3-27, MacDowall 4-14.

PASSING
N.C. A&T — Fears 7-22-2-99, Kindle 1-4-1-2, Team 0-1-0-0.
Coastal Carolina — MacDowall 5-15-1-99, Childers 1-5-1-11.

RECEIVING
N.C. A&T — Fisher 3-30, Raper 2-49, Cooper 2-16, Miles 1-6.
Coastal Carolina — Nicholas 3-42, Whitley 1-55, Willis 1-8, Collins 1-5.