| Yes, Livingstone, there is a Virginia
— two of them — in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Livingstone’s two-time defending CIAA
champions ran into a tough defensive unit from Virginia for the second time in two weeks
here Saturday afternoon, falling to first-place Virginia State 17-0 at Alumni Stadium.
Virginia Union, the preseason
favorite, defeated coach Greg Richardson’s Blue Bears 24-6 in Livingstone’s only
other home game two weeks ago.
Virginia State’s Trojans
improved to 3-0 in the league and 3-2 overall, while Livingstone slipped to 1-2 and 2-3.
Livingstone, which leads the CIAA
in scoring, total offense and rushing offense, wound up with more yardage (319) than did
Virginia State (295), but the Blue Bears struggled when they had scoring opportunities.
“We ran the ball fairly well,
but we just didn’t convert when we needed to,” said Richardson, whose Bears
gained 226 yards on the ground, falling a little short of their CIAA-leading average of
237.5.
“When you get down in the red
zone and you can’t get fourth and one or fourth and two or three with our kind of
offense, you’re not going to win,” exclaimed Richardson. “In addition to
that, we had way too many penalties. We’re going to have to correct those kind of
things. That’s a matter of discipline.”
The Bears were trailing only 7-0
late in the first quarter when quarterback D’Andre Hopper broke loose for 35 yards on
a quarterback sneak to put Livingstone in Trojan territory for the first time. The home
team moved to the VSU 9 and faced a fourth-and-three situation. Running back Carlton
Jones, the CIAA rushing leader, was stopped a yard short of a first down by 265-pound
lineman Joseph Sanders.
Livingstone, led by the running of
Jones and freshman running back Lamontee’ Stephens, reached the Trojans’ 14 late
in the first half and faced a third-and-one situation. An illegal procedure penalty hurt
the Bears, and Chris Terry missed a 40-yard field goal with only 1:05 left on the clock.
The Trojans, who had gone ahead on
a 20-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Antonio Hawkins to wide receiver Jabari Clark in
the first period, didn’t settle for a 7-0 halftime lead. Hawkins completed four quick
passes to the CIAA’s top receiver, Damon Thompson, and got close enough for Isaac
Johnson to kick a 34-yard field goal as time expired, making it 10-0.
Hawkins, the CIAA passing leader,
used his throwing arm to set up the Trojans’ second TD, a 1-yard run by reserve
running back Troy Lee in the third period.
Livingstone got deep into Virginia
State territory one more time, reaching the 25 on an 8-yard pass from Hopper to wide
receiver Shannon Gainey on the final play of the third period. That left a
fourth-and-three play, and Gainey, switching to running back, was stopped a yard shy of
the first down.
“We just couldn’t get
into rhythm today,” said Richardson. “I don’t know if that’s a fault
of us as coaches: We just couldn’t seem to get it. We thought we could run on them,
and we did run on them, but then when we finally got down to where we needed to score, we
bogged down.”
The Trojans came in averaging 27.7
points over its last three games, so Richardson knew his defensive unit had to be sharp.
“We have confidence in our
defense. They did an outstanding job holding them to that (17 points),” said
Richardson.
Sophomore linebacker Rodney Hunt,
however, wasn’t satisfied with the defensive effort.
“I don’t think they
should have scored 17 points,” said Hunt, who had six tackles, three behind the line
of scrimmage. “Every time I come out, I expect us to win.It feels bad to lose like
this. We didn’t do our best. I’m not satisfied. Seventeen points is too
much.”
Hawkins completed 18 of 30 passes
for 230 yards, topping his season average of 204.5. Livingstone, which had nine
interceptions in its first four games, failed to pick off a pass thrown by the accurate
Hawkins (51.4 percent for the season).
The talented Thompson, the
league’s all-purpose yardage, receiving yardage and receptions leader, caught nine of
Hawkins’ passes for 78 yards.
Richardson was impressed with the
defensive improvement shown by VSU, which had allowed 28 points to North Carolina Central
and 31 to Savannah State the previous two weeks.
“I knew they would work on
their defense, and I knew they would be better,” said the first-year head coach.
“We knew that they weren’t going to continue on the path they were going ,
giving up a lot of rushing yards and not make some changes. Their defensive
coordinator’s a smart guy. He’s been around a long time. He knows what he needs
to do, and he got it done.”
Mel Rose, Livingstone’s
former head coach (1981-84), is defensive coordinator for VSU.
“Their defensive game plan
was also to try to control the clock, because if they kept the ball, they kept our offense
off the field. They were concerned about our offense. All we did was help them a little by
not doing what we needed to do.” |
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