GREENSBORO — The Gate City was great for Livingstone on Saturday, especially for five
hometown guys.Livingstone’s
Blue Bears, playing a home game at Greensboro DudleyHigh School, rolled past Fayetteville
State 34-7 with four former Dudley Panthers and an ex-Greensboro Page Pirate playing
important roles.
The victory in the season finale
enabled Livingstone to avoid finishing in a tie for last place after winning back-to-back
Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association titles in 1997 and 1998. Coach Greg
Richardson’s Bears wound up 2-5 (sixth place) in the CIAA and 4-7 overall.
Returning to their former home
stadium, Shannon Gainey and Michael Morrison combined for three touchdowns, and their
former Dudley teammates, Michael Posey and Marcus Little, had solid defensive
performances. Back-up quarterback Antonio Kirkpatrick, who played for Page against Dudley
as a prep star, threw a TD pass.
Gainey, a sophomore wide receiver,
running back and kick returner, scored two touchdowns on a 21-yard run and a 13-yard pass
from Kirkpatrick.
“It felt great;I felt like I
was right back at Dudley,” said the speedy Gainey, one of the top all-purpose runners
in the league. “I appreciate all those fans that came back to see me play. It was a
tremendous turnout that came to watch me play. All the guys from Greensboro that played
here at Dudley, all of us contributed tonight and everybody did well.”
Morrison, a freshman wide receiver
and the No. 3 quarterback, caught a 24-yard TD pass from starting QB D’Andre Hopper,
who had a big offensive night.
“It feels great to finally
come back here and win my last game on this campus, because the last time I was here, we
lost by one in overtime, and it wasn’t a good feeling,” said Morrison, who
quarterbacked the Panthers as a senior in 1997, when Dudley lost to Northeast Guilford in
the state 4A playoffs.
“We (former Dudley players)
have been talking about this the whole year. We’ve been waiting for this chance to
finally come back to our high school and get a win on this field. Even though we graduated
in separate years, we all lost our last home game on this field. It felt great to come
back and win,” Morrison added.
Little graduated in 1996, Gainey
and Posey in 1997, and Morrison in 1998.
Posey, a sophomore, had one of
Livingstone’s five pass interceptions and was in on four tackles, one for a 2-yard
loss.
“I’ve been anticipating
it all year long,” he said of his homecoming. “I knew I was going to get an
interception, at home on my home field.” It was his second interception of the
season, and he’s broken up seven other passes.
Posey is looking forward to being
a part of the Bears’ defensive unit in 2000.
“We had a young defense, but
we have a lot of returning starters, so we should be very strong next year,” said
Posey, who started every game, usually at cornerback.
Little, a defensive end, had a
couple of jarring tackles as a special team player and finished with seven tackles (second
high on the team), one for a 2-yard loss.
“It was real special,”
said Little, a 6-foot, 245-pound junior. “I felt like I was faster than everybody.I
just felt like I was in a zone, coming back home. ... It ends the season on a good note.
We would have liked to have got the shutout. That’s what we were aiming for.”
Kirkpatrick, a junior who played
quarterback about half the game, enjoyed the win just as much as his former Dudley rivals.
“It was still a homecoming.
This is like my field, because we always won here,” he quipped. “Just to come
back and play in front of a lot of friends that couldn’t make it down to Salisbury,
it was fun tonight.”
Richardson, closing out his first
season as a head coach, said, “We did some really good things on offense. The offense
kind of got rolling like we knew we could, and we were able to realize some of the
potential of our offense.”
Led by Hopper’s 253 total
yards, including 156 rushing in 18 carries, the Bears racked up 452 total yards. Running
back Carlton Jones had his best game in several weeks with 112 yards in 15 tries and
scored a TD on a 34-yard pass from Hopper.
“I think winning this game
allows us to give our young men some momentum for next year, gets them to understand what
we are trying to do, and I hope we can build on this,” said Richardson.
“Defensively, we played a
really good game. A lot of kids stepped up and played real, real well. We were concerned,
because they (Fayetteville State) have real good personnel. But our kids stepped up. They
wanted to win and wanted it for our seniors more than anything. That’s what we talked
about all week,” he added.
Defensively, the Bears limited the
Broncos to 191 total yards and just 58 on the ground. Livingstone shut out the Broncos
until Fayetteville quarterback Chris Stewart hit wide receiver David Porter for a 6-yard
touchdown pass with only 2:08 left in the game.
The Broncos finished 1-10 overall
and 1-6 in the CIAA, sharing last place with Johnson C. Smith and Elizabeth City State. |
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