UAlbany Outlasts Morgan State Bears in the End, 30-27

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ALBANY, New York  -- Freshman Dev Holmes had eight receptions for a season-high 238 yards, including an 88-yard go-ahead touchdown catch in the fourth quarter, to help UAlbany beat Morgan State 30-27 on Saturday night at Tom & Mary Casey Stadium. It marked the second straight season the Bears have lost to the Great Danes.

The Great Danes were trailing 27-23 with about eight minutes to play when quarterback Vincent Testaverde, facing a second and 23 from his own 12-yard line, rifled a pass over the middle to a wide open Holmes, who ran untouched to the end zone in front of 6,501 fans.

Morgan State head coach Ernest T. Jones spoke about the play.

"It's tough. Those guys fought out there for us for four quarters, and they were doing everything that we asked them to do. We just didn't finish."

 Postgame Stats (PDF) |  Postgame Notes (PDF)



"With taking the type of chances that we take on offense and defense – you can get burned. And we got burned late in the game. It was an aggressive [play] call and I felt good about the call. We had our best player versus their best player and I was willing to live with the consequences and unfortunately their best player won."
Holmes finished 13 yards receiving shy of the school's single-game record and his touchdown was the third longest pass play in program history. He has 21 receptions for 449 yards and two TDs this season.

Ethan Stark made field goals of 27, 32 and a career-long 51 yards and Testaverde had 310 yards passing and two touchdowns for UAlbany (1-2). Testaverde, whose father Vinny played 21 seasons in the NFL, completed just 15 of 43 passes and threw four interceptions..

Sophomore cornerback Donte Small returned an interception 45-yards for a score to give Morgan State (0-3) a 27-23 lead with 7:55 to play. It marked Small's third pick of the night -- just one shy of the school record held by Craig Spencer who had 4 interceptions in a game vs. Virginia State in 1977.

Testaverde was sacked on the next play from scrimmage but then, on second-and-23, connected with Holmes for what would prove to be the winning touchdown.

The Bears lost two fumbles in the final seven minutes, including a strip-sack by Dean Grogg that was recovered by Eli Spencer with 1:49 to play.

Morgan State's junior wideout Manasseh Bailey had two receptions, a 90-yard score in the second quarter and a 19-yard touchdown in the third.

Junior DeAndre Harris had his most productive outing of the season. He connected on 7 of 18 passes for 193 yards, including a pair of TD passes to Bailey. He also led the Bears on the ground with 99 yards on 19 carries.

"I thought DeAndre played well," Jones said about his starting quarterback. "He was trying to execute the calls that we put in front of him. Again, we want to run the football and we want to run the quarterback. DeAndre was making the right reads on when to pull it and when to run it, and then he also made some big throws out there."

The Bears offense rolled up 422 yards and was effective on ground where they gashed UAlbany for 229 yards.

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Morgan State will travel to face North Carolina A&T (3-0) next Saturday (Sept. 22) in Greensboro, N.C.

MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETIC MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS