JCSU’s Damien Mazil has the Golden Bulls humming

TROY HULL | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Damien Mazil accounted for five touchdowns, including a career-high four passing, in Johnson C. Smith's 49-6 win against Shaw on Oct. 9. Mazil completed 12-of-18 passes for a career-best 301 yards.

Damien Mazil’s unlocked J.C. Smith’s offensive potential – and his own.

The Golden Bulls quarterback unleashed a career game Friday with five touchdowns in their 49-6 win against Shaw, including four scoring passes to four different receivers. Mazil, who ran his record as JCSU’s starter to 5-0, completed 12-of-17 passes for a personal best 301 yards and punished the Bears for crowding the line of scrimmage to slow the Golden Bulls’ (5-1, 4-0 CIAA) potent ground attack. 

“It just goes back to trusting the system,” said Mazil, a transfer from Wagner whose previous single-game high for scoring passes was two against Winston-Salem State and Bluefield State. “Getting here in the summer, I just tried to speed up my process of learning the offense. But as time goes and more reps happen in practice, I’d get more comfortable. And these receivers – they make my job really easy. Getting them the ball, they make plays. It was just trusting the process and just taking it day by day, brick by brick, and trying to get better.” 

It paid dividends against Shaw (4-3, 2-3) with Smith rolling up 518 yards and touchdowns on seven of nine possessions, including the first six. The Bears dared Mazil to beat them through the air, and he obliged with a mix of short, intermediate and long passes for big gains. Running backs Fabian Duncan and Kamarro Edmonds converted screen passes into scores from 45 and 24 yards respectively.

Mazil connected on Reggie Daniel over the middle for a 57-yard touchdown and topped the outburst with a 13-yard fade to Brian Lane in the third quarter to make the score 42-6. Parker McQuarrie, who opened the season at quarterback, tossed his first touchdown pass as a Golden Bull with a 15-yarder to Christian Rutledge in the fourth quarter.

“We have guys out there, so my plan is just give them the ball and let them do the rest,” Mazil said. “Brian Lane, Reggie, even Fabian got one in there. … Kamarro also. Just getting the guys the ball and let them just do what they do. They’re all athletes, and they just make plays with the ball in their hands.”

Going into the season, JCSU focused on leaning into the ground attack with the CIAA’s best offensive line and a bevy of capable running backs. With Mazil developing rapport with a dynamic receiver corps, the Golden Bulls are becoming more potent.

“Our passing game, it’s just been getting better,” coach Maurice Flowers said. If you look at it week by week by week, I’m not going to say we put extra attention on it. We don't. We just work in practice. We have our periods that [for] different things that we emphasize. We’re not doing anything different. We’re just getting better.”

TROY HULL | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Reggie Daniel (0) was one of four Johnson C. Smith receivers to catch a scoring pass from Damien Mazil in the Golden Bulls' 49-6 win against Shaw.

The statistics back up Flowers’ observation. With Duncan on the cusp of 1,000 yards rushing (140 carries, 929 yards, nine touchdowns) after six games, the ground attack is one of the nation’s best. Mazil not only doubled his passing touchdowns total with the breakout game against Shaw, he’s completed 55-of-94 tries for 983 yards since taking over for MaQuarrie. Combined with his output the previous week against Bluefield State (10-of-13, 147 yards, 2 TDs) Mazil’s stepping up in productivity.

“If you look at some of our past games, you’ll see the passing attack is being more efficient, and it just comes from the hard work that we’re putting in in practice, the emphasis that we’re putting on,” Flowers said. “It’s coming from having the right focus and the right mindset to be coachable.”

And unflappable. The Shaw game was moved up a day in anticipation of heavy rains spawned by Hurricane Isaias, but the Golden Bulls, who’ve won their last two games by a combined 100-6, were dominant in every phase. 

“If they told us we had to play on Thursday, I think we would have been ready,” Mazil said. “Honestly, nothing really changed for us. It was just a day earlier. Some things changed with our day-to-day routine just on a game day. But I think all of us were ready. We were prepared, and it showed.”

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