‘I felt her every minute tonight’: NC State football's Isaiah Moore honors late grandmother after Wake Forest win
RALEIGH – Isaiah Moore gathered his defensive teammates around his locker Saturday morning, hours before NC State would host Wake Forest in a top-25 matchup.
The Wolfpack captain and senior linebacker wanted to explain his absence two days before and express the emotion he was feeling heading into an important game.
His grandmother, Maxine Bell, had died on Thursday, and Moore had gone back to his hometown of Chester, Virginia, to say goodbye.
“I just told them everything that my Nana did,” Moore said after the 30-21 win over the Demon Deacons. “She never missed the opportunity to make somebody smile, and we had the opportunity to make a lot of people smile tonight. I just wanted them to take advantage of that and appreciate the gift that God gave us.”
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It was Moore’s penultimate game at Carter-Finley Stadium after six seasons with NC State. He made it count.
Moore finished with a team-high 10 tackles, 2.5 tackles for a loss and a sack on third and goal in the first quarter that forced Wake Forest to settle for a missed field goal attempt.
Moore’s mother, LeVonda Whitfield, tweeted “For Nana!!” after the sack. After the game, he dedicated the win to Bell, a woman he called “a pillar of our family”.
NC State (7-2, 3-2) held the Demon Deacons to seven points in the second half, 17 total rushing yards and forced quarterback Sam Hartman into three interceptions during the win. Wake’s 21 points were tied for its season-low and Moore’s 10 tackles were tied for his season-best. It was the ninth time in his career that Moore finished with double-digit tackles in a game.
The Wolfpack extended their home win streak to 16 games and could make it a program-best 17 next week in their final home game of the season against Boston College.
“I felt her every minute, tonight,” Moore said. “Every minute she never left me and I know she’s never going to leave me.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: NC State's Isaiah Moore honors late grandmother after Wake Forest win
