The Towson University Tigers defeated Morgan State once again in The Battle for Greater Baltimore this past Saturday in a tightly contested 14-9 matchup.
Morgan’s offense found themselves at second and 10 at the Towson 45 yard line down 5 needing a touchdown with less than two minutes of gametime left.
Pressure from the Towson defense forced Sophomore quarterback Tahj Smith to take a sack on second down and throw the ball away on fourth down, effectively ending the game for Morgan.
The game this year was held at the Johnny Unitas Stadium with a crowd of 8,394 roaring for their respective teams in the stands.
The Tigers improved their all-time record beating the Bears now 26-6 with the last time Morgan winning against Towson was in 2009 with a score of 12-9.
Morgan came out strong with an opening 3 points after senior cornerback Carlvainsky Decius caught an interception from Towson quarterback Carlos Davis. After securing the interception, Morgan State’s Beckett Leary finished the drive with a career-high 40 yard field goal.
The Tigers answered to that by scoring 2 touchdowns putting them in the lead for 14-3 in the first half.
Morgan could not get anything going in the first half but came out bursting with energy in the second answering in the first minute of the third quarter as sophomore quarterback Tahj Smith, threw a 74 yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Joseph Kennerly Jr.
“Really just slowing down the game and playing outside the football and understanding what we seeing and be more efficient”. Smith said.
Playing one of his best games as a Bear Smith went 13 of 20 for 163 yards. He was also sacked 5 times.
“I feel alright but we aint get the job done so it wasn’t good enough” Smith said.
The Bears controlled the clock with 32:12 minutes of possession as the Tigers had 27:48, Penalties were a huge part in the Bears inability to get back into this game they had 9 penalties for 58 yards.
Penalties ahead of this season were a point of emphasis for Morgan State Head Coach Damon WIlson to this point the team has not lived up to his standard.
The Bears had a total of 86 rushing yards and redshirt freshman running back Jason Collins Jr. was their leading rusher having 6 carries for 34 yards averaging 5.7 per carry, which is a decline from last week’s rushing performance when they ran for 255 total yards. Towson overall outgained 346 yards to Morgan’s 249.
The Bears kicker, a senior Beckett Leary, had two kicks blocked, which makes 3 blocked kick attempts in the first two games. Leaving 4 points on the field, one being an extra point blocked and the other being a field goal blocked. Both were blocked by Towson redshirt freshmen defensive linemen Rion Roseborough s.
Morgan’s defense kept the Tigers shutout in the second half and was dominant forcing two Tiger turnovers..
Senior Defensive Back Carlvainsky Decius got an interception to start the game. Whereas sophomore Defensive Back Ja’son Prevard recovered a fumble forced by senior defensive end Nana Asante from the Tigers graduate student wide receiver Da’Kendall James.
Senior defensive linemen Elijah Williams and junior linebacker Arturo Mattocks stood out in Saturday’s game; Williams had 2 sacks and 2 tackles for loss and 8 tackles in total. Mattocks led the game with 9 tackles, including a tackle for loss.
Morgan State looks to advance to 2-1 as they play the Ohio Bobcats on Sept.14 at 3:30 p.m, the last opponent on their three game stretch on the road.
