LORMAN &045; Donald Carrie is not a quarterback who will shy away from a hit.

But maybe now he’s a little wiser and knows what to do when things get bad.

The senior quarterback had his bell rung a bit on the first drive of last week’s win over North Carolina A&T, but he refused to come out and tried to play through it. Needless to say the offense struggled in that first half, and coaches came to his rescue at halftime.

All it took was some smelling salts, and he came out firing in the second half to lead the Braves to the comeback win.

&uot;I tried not to show to the opponent that I was hurt, but it affected me,&uot; Carrie said this week. &uot;My vision was blurry for a good while. I was trying to focus in to make the play, but sometimes it didn’t work out that way. I didn’t think I was knocked out, but once I got the smelling salts, it made me see a whole lot better.&uot;

Carrie overcame some adversity in the win, and the team was able to do the same to go to 2-0 for the first time in head coach Johnny Thomas’ seven-year tenure. It was a hard-fought win &045; more noteworthy in that regard than the Grambling win &045; and one that may have grown up some of the younger players.

Now the Braves will shoot for a 3-0 mark at 3 p.m. today against Howard in the Prince George’s Classic at FedEx Field in Landover, Md. No Alcorn team has gone 3-0 since 1993.

&uot;It was a tremendous confidence builder, and the guys learned that even thought they didn’t play well in the first three quarters, they still were able to win despite the mistakes,&uot; Thomas said. &uot;Our offense has done an outstanding job when they needed to, Certainly we had our ups and downs and didn’t play the way we wanted to play, but we found when we had to play.

&uot;That’s something you don’t want to do often because you’re not going to get away with it time after time.&uot;

It was the defense that bailed out Carrie and the offense in the first half, leaving the door open for the two touchdowns in the fourth quarter for the three-point win. It came late in the game with standout outside linebacker Dwan Wilson nursing a shot to the ribs, an injury serious enough to hold him out of practice this week up until Wednesday.

That defense, with its two starting defensive tackles and just four starters back from a season ago, continues to impress.

&uot;What made this win so special was the fact that this is a different football team and we’re playing some talented freshmen on both sides of the ball,&uot; Thomas said. &uot;The defense, though we bent a little bit, we didn’t break. We were very proud of them holding A&T when they had to hold them. They are to be commended.&uot;

Now the focus will be back on the offense with Carrie back to his old self and the backfield welcoming back one injured player. The Braves were without both Vernardus Cooper and Jeremy McCoy last week, forcing freshman Michael Shepherd into the rotation behind senior Robert Lester.

McCoy, hampered by a hyperextended elbow, is expected to play today, but Cooper may be out today and next week due to a MCL strain.

The offense will match up against a Howard defense that suffered hard luck in a 47-14 loss last week to a good Hampton squad. The Bison lost five fumbles and allowed 26 points on special teams.

&uot;They have a good secondary,&uot; Carrie said. &uot;They’re ready to hit and make plays. We have to try to get them going in more than one direction. We’re going to take what they give us. They play a lot of cover-3.&uot;

Howard has struggled in its two games this season, including a 27-12 season-opening loss to Alabama State. The Braves have not played the Bison since 1993 and 1-3 in the all-time series.

But this is a different team, one that is shooting for a 3-0 start and possibly the school’s first 4-0 start since the 1984 team went 9-0 and won the Black College National Championship.

&uot;It’s a big challenge for us,&uot; linebacker Tavari Hughes said. &uot;As long as we stay focused take it one game at a time, maybe we can go undefeated. We’ve got some young guys, but they’re just as good as we are. They’ve got to step up and play.&uot;

Said Carrie: &uot;We’ll have to get focused on playing hard for four quarters of football. We don’t want to play hard at the end of the game to come back. We want to play hard at the beginning so we won’t be the ‘Cardiac Kids’ any more.&uot;