College football: Blue Bears crushed on the road

Published 8:32 pm Saturday, October 1, 2022

Staff report

BOWIE, Md. — Records were set at Bowie State’s Dawg Pound on Saturday afternoon.

Livingstone’s football team, a cooperative homecoming guest, was on the wrong end of them.

Bowie State’s veteran quarterback DJ Golatt broke the program’s record for passing yards in a game. He threw for 439 yards, completing 32 of 40 passes.

How bad was it? Golatt threw four touchdown passes in the second quarter alone.

Bowie State led the CIAA contest 35-0 at halftime and cruised to a 53-7 win over the Blue Bears (1-4, 0-3).

The game was played in light rain, but 3,171 spectators showed up.

Bowie State (3-2, 2-1) scored twice on safeties and tacked on a field goal with 4:29 remaining for its final points.

Livingstone’s touchdown came on defense. With the Blue Bears down 44-0, Kevin Larkins sprinted 83 yards for a pick-six with 4:28 left in the third quarter.

Livingstone has been alternating starting quarterbacks. Freshman Silas Cruse got the start and experienced a long day. He was 8-for-25 passing for 100 yards. He was sacked four times and threw three interceptions.

Livingstone couldn’t establish any sort of a running game, netting only 8 rushing yards.

Bowie State eviscerated LC’s defense, putting up 666 yards of offense, not the most in program history, but in the top five all-time.

Livingstone was only down 6-0 after the first quarter, but the second quarter was an avalanche of touchdown passes by the Bulldogs. Golatt hit four different receivers for touchdowns, including one with 47 seconds left in the first half for that 35-0 advantage.

Bowie State moves on to a big one next — at Virginia State.

Livingstone has a home game against Winston-Salem State on Saturday afternoon. The Blue Bears are through the impossible part of the season — Virginia Union, Virginia State and Bowie State in consecutive weeks. They’ll have a chance against most of the Southern Division teams that are coming up on the schedule.

Livingstone    0    0    7    0   — 7

Bowie State    6   29   15   3   — 53

Scoring plays

BS — McDonald 2 run (kick failed), 1:46, 1st

BS — Scroggins 32 pass from Golatt (pass failed), 14:51, 2nd

BS — Hall 8 pass from Golatt (Zavala kick), 10:30, 2nd

BS — Safety, 7:25, 2nd

BS — Winder 33 pass from Golatt (Zavala kick), 4:32, 2nd

BS — Parker 21 pass from Golatt (Zavala kick), 0:47, 2nd

BS — Doku 6 run (Zavala kick), 8:03, 3rd

BS — Safety, 7:59, 3rd

LC — Larkins 83 interception return (Weiers kick), 4:28, 3rd

BS — Williams 9 run (run failed), 1:35, 3rd

BS — Zavala FG 29, 4:29, 4th

Individual stats

Rushing — LC: Harris 11-28; Cruse 4-minus 31. BS: Doku 13-77; Williams 4-42; McDonald 8-41; Golatt 7-22.

Passing — LC: Cruse 8-25-3, 100, BS: Golatt 32-40-2, 439.

Receiving — LC: Henry 3-51; Rorie 1-20; Harris 1-17; Tutson 2-8; Ogletree 1-4. BS: Hall 10-120; Hinckley 8-107; Winder 3-45.