By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

MURFREESBORO — By the time you get to Murfreesboro, home of Chowan University, you’ve traveled well over 200 miles from Salisbury and you’re getting close to the Virginia line.

Livingstone College’s football team went a long way on Saturday, as far as mileage and as far as progress on the field. It was an exhausting day for head coach Daryl Williams, his staff and a banged-up roster of Blue Bears, but a 25-12 loss to the Hawks provided realistic hope for better days ahead.

Livingstone (0-4, 0-1 CIAA) actually led at halftime, 12-10, but produced negligible offense in the second half.

“It’s tough to leave on a Saturday morning, travel that far and play on Saturday night,” Williams said. “We asked an awful lot of our guys today, and I was proud of what they gave us.  I’m more excited right now than disappointed. We know we could’ve won this game. The plays were right there to be made, we just didn’t make them.”

Justin Ruffin, the former Salisbury High star, got a lot of touches with Jarius Richardson out and responded. Ruffin had 93 rushing yards on 16 carries and caught four passes for 32 more.

“We got our running game going in the first half,” Williams said. “Ruffin played an excellent game with some of our other guys banged up. He ran the ball well on screens.”

LC QB Xavier Longerbeam threw for 128 yards with no interceptions, but there also were no touchdown passes. There were few explosive plays by Livingstone’s offense, and Longerbeam was sacked six times.

“We didn’t have a single third-down conversion in the second half,” Williams said.

Livingstone’s defense was put in difficult spots but came up with two interceptions, four sacks and a lot of stops.

Chowan’s Bryce Witt threw for 203 yards. Michael Offutt provided almost all of Chowan’s positive rushes and had 24 carries for 189 yards.

Witt scored on a 6-yard run, as Chowan took a 6-0 lead just minutes into the game.

Livingstone’s Elems Ukwu Jr. got the Bears back into it with his 34-yard interception return for a touchdown. That stunning play with 9:05 left in the first quarter gave Livingstone momentum that lasted the rest of the first half. It stayed 6-all when Ruffin was stopped on a try for a 2-point conversion.

Chowan got a field goal for a 9-6 lead, but late in the first quarter, the Blue Bears put together their best drive all day, keeping the ball more than four minutes and pushing 77 yards in 13 plays. Ruffin dashed into the end zone from the 7-yard line for the score that put the Blue Bears on top, 12-10.

After an interception by Walter Watkins at the Livingstone 10 stopped a Chowan drive, Livingstone kept the ball 10 plays late in the second quarter. That drive stalled when Longerbeam was sacked on fourth-and-7 at the Chowan 35, but the Bears still had the lead at the break.

Livingstone’s lead didn’t last long in the second half. Chowan scored quickly through the air for a 16-12 lead, but a 2-point conversion try failed.

Livingstone made a bid to retake the lead in the middle of the third quarter, putting together three straight positive plays — runs of 9 and 10 yards by Longerbeam, followed by an 18-yard completion to Tyler Fields. On third-and-4 at the Chowan 42, Ruffin broke through for what would’ve been a first down near the Chowan 30, but a holding call on LC’s left tackle brought that play back.

Livingstone never got anything going on offense after that.

Chowan used a 64-yard punt return by Offutt to set up the back-breaking TD for a 22-12 lead.  That score came with 10:29 remaining.

“We had a guy in position and had a clean shot at him, but we just missed the tackle,” Williams said.

A sack and fumble recovery by the Hawks (1-3, 1-0 CIAA) led to a field goal and the final points of the day with 7:27 left.

Livingstone managed 268 yards of offense and finished 4-for-17 on third-down conversions. That makes for a tough day.

“Still, our guys made some strides out there,” Williams said. “We just need more players, have to add more talent to our personnel.”

While the loss counts in the conference, what matters most is the Southern Division. The Blue Bears are still 0-0 there.

“We finally get to play our first home game next week, and with no travel we’ll have a chance to heal some injuries,” Williams said. “Yes, we’re 0-4, but the goal is the same as it’s been since the season started, and that’s to represent the Southern Division in the CIAA Championship. None of our losses are in the division, and when you look at the Southern Division, everyone has been losing.”

Williams has a point. Five teams in the six-team Southern Division have losing overall records. Winston-Salem, usually the team to beat, is 2-2.