The Morgan State Bears dominated the Virginia University of Lynchburg Dragons this past Saturday in a 56-7 matchup.
The game was dedicated to former teammate Gavin “Loc” Yarbough who passed away late Monday evening.
“All this game was dedicated for him, we tryna take it all the way for him,” said redshirt freshman running back Jason Collins Jr.
It had been a tough week as the team learned the passing of their former teammate.
“Honestly we wanted to put out a dominant performance just to honor Loc,” said senior cornerback Carlvainsky Decius.
The Bears dominated from start to finish beginning with a Decius’ interception returned for a touchdown on the second play of the game.
“Going into the week we know we wanted to take away the quick game,” said Decius.
In the first half, the Bears scored 42 points. The first touchdown on offense was an 8-yard run by graduate running back J.J. Davis.
Collins Jr. who led the team in rushing yards with 69 also had two touchdowns on the day, one being a 32-yard run and the other a 9-yard run.
“I was tryna get in that box I ain’t gonna lie, I was eager to score, I was happy to see the team excited for me and I was just trying to celebrate,” said Collins.
Sophomore quarterback Tahj Smith scored a pair of touchdowns, one using his legs to cap off a nine play 70-yard drive in the first quarter and another in the air to open up the second quarter with a 15-yard touchdown to senior wide receiver Andre Crawley.
Backup quarterback redshirt junior Duce Taylor saw action throwing a swing pass to freshman running back Kyle Williams for a 5 yard touchdown. Taylor completed a team-high seven completions for 59 yards.
With the game out of reach junior quarterback Dominique Anthony entered in relief and completed a 39-yard pass to fellow junior wide receiver Joseph Owumi for the final score of the game.
The Bears leaned on their physical run game totaling 293 yards rushing and four touchdowns on 7.5 yards per carry. The Bears are averaging 174.5 yards per contest.
“Gotta put the load on us, we got four good backs so you know everybody can tote the rock,” said Collins.
The Dragons had one drive when they went down the field in the fourth quarter and topped it off with a 20-yard touchdown run by junior running back Jacob Newman.
“We need to do a better job of taking the ball away defensively but I’m happy with the win,” said head coach Damon Wilson.
The Bears struggled with turnovers this game with having 4 fumbles and only 2 of them were recovered.
“Some things we got to improve on, too many turnovers offensively,” said Wilson.
It’s the first time the Bears eclipsed the 50-point mark since late in the 2019 season where they also beat Lynchburg, 59-26 being the final score.
The Bears will travel to New York next week to face the 3-1 Stony Brook Seawolves on Saturday, Sept. 28 at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium. Kickoff is at 3:30 p.m. EST.
