Bowie State 42, Virginia Union 14

October 22, 2005

(RICHMOND, VIRGINIA) With its sights on a chance to participate in the CIAA Championship in two weeks, Bowie State kept its options open by trouncing Virginia Union 42-14 in the 28th Annual Gold Bowl Classic. The win improves Bowie State to 7-2 overall and 5-2 in the Eastern Division.

The Virginia Union Panthers (2-7 overall and 1-5 in the CIAA) jumped out to a 7-0 lead at the 7:15 mark of the first quarter when John Grier connected with Herb Jones for a 55 yard touchdown. Bowie State’s Isaac Redman rushed for a 12-yard TD, tying the score at seven with 1:45 left in the first quarter.

Bowie State took a 14-7 lead early in the second quarter, when VUU’s Chad Talley’s punt was blocked by BSU’s Sterling Green and recovered in the Panthers end zone by Byron Anderson. Virginia Union evened the count at 14 with 2:48 remaining before the half when the Grier/Jones duo teamed up again, this time from 17 yards out.

The second half was all Bowie State as the Bulldogs went on a 21-0 third quarter run and put the game out of reach. The Bulldogs’ Lamar Manigo (9 for 15 for 153 yards) capped off a 12 play – 99 yard drive, rushing for a 10 yard touchdown with 4:15 left in period three. Following a turnover by Virginia Union’s Grier, the BSU’s Isaac Redman (28 carries for 186 yards) scampered 27 yards down the VUU sideline, increasing Bowie State’s lead to 27-14. For his efforts Redman was named the games Offensive MVP. Redman needs just five yards to become Bowie State’s All-Time Season Leader in Rushing Yards. The current record of 1,073 yards is currently held by Milton Carr (1975). Glen Thomas outran the Virginia Union secondary and made a spectacular catch along Bowie State’s sideline and turned it into a 61 yard touchdown and a 35-14 Bulldogs lead after three periods of play.

Thomas recorded his second TD of the afternoon with 10:22 left in the contest, this time from 17 yards out, capping off an 8 play – 62 yard Bulldogs drive and giving the visitors a comfortable 42-14 advantage. Thomas finished the game with 130 yards on just four receptions and put his name in BSU’s Record Book in two more categories. Thomas became BSU’s All-Time Season Reception Yards leader with 718 surpassing Greg Fuller’s 1975 mark of 605 and he has tied with Fuller for Career Touchdown Receptions. John Grier was Virginia Union’s top offensive producer with 217 passing yards.

“This was a great atmosphere … Virginia Union came out to play but we can out to play too. We made some adjustments in the second half to get our guys back on track and feel real good about our chances going into next week, said BSU second year Head Coach Mike Lynn.

The Bulldogs rolled up 492 yards in total offense and held Virginia Union to 267 yards in total offense. Defensively, Devin Williams led the Bulldogs with 8 total tackles, followed by Sterling Green and Jasper Chamberlain with 7 and 6 tackles respectively.

When asked about Virginia State win earlier in the day over Shaw, Lynn responded, “Coach Faison and his staff have a great team. We’ve been hoping since we lost to Shaw that we would have a chance at the end and it looks like we will. We just have to win our game and get our guys ready to play the best football that Bowie State can play and hopefully we’ll be able to go to the championship game in Durham (11/5).

Virginia State crushed the defending CIAA Champion Bears of Shaw University 43-10, setting the table for next week’s clash between Bowie State and the VSU Trojans in Petersburg. A Bowie State win will assure the Bulldogs at least a tie for the CIAA Eastern Division crown.