Bowie State Bulldogs Football Trounces Elizabeth City State 49-7 on Senior Day

BOWIE, Maryland -- With 23 seniors honored before the game and 1,742 fans in attendance, Bowie State University defeated Elizabeth City State University, 49-7, to advance to the CIAA Championship. It's the Bulldogs third trip to the conference's championship game in the past four years. The Bulldogs will face Fayetteville State in the CIAA Championship Game in Salem (Va.), with an 8-2 record overall and 5-1 in division play.

Football Action vs. Elizabeth City State https://t.co/uCndjuQKTd

— BSU Athletics (@BSU_Sports_Info) November 4, 2018

In the first quarter, Brandon Abrams scored a nine-yard run, to put Bowie State on the board at 7-0. At the 7:59 mark, Gilbert Lunsford scored a touchdown from Hall to strengthen the Bulldogs lead, 14-0. Lansana Sesay recorded a 77-yard pass from Hall, putting the Bulldogs up, 21-0 to end the first quarter.

To start the second quarter, Daryl snared a five-yard pass from Hall, putting the Bulldogs up, 28-0. With the TD pass, Hall became the CIAA All-Time Passing Touchdown Leader, surpassing the old mark of 96 by Kameron Smith of Winston-Salem State. Bryan Ellis his first collegiate pushing touchdown on a three-yard run to increase the Bulldogs lead to 35-0. To end the quarter, Sesay caught an 8-yard pass from Hall, to extend the Bowie State Bulldogs lead to 42-0 at the half.

The defense came to play in the third quarter, as neither the Bowie nor Elizabeth City scored a touchdown. But in the fourth quarter, Hamidou Mapangala picked up a fumble and rumbled 59-yards for six to account for Bowie State's final score of the contest. Elizabeth City avoided the shutout with six-seconds left in the game when Deshon Saunders scored a one-yard run.

Senior quarterback Amir Hall, who was among the seniors honored before the game, broke the career record for passing touchdowns (98) and finished with 333 passing yards and watched from the sidelines in the fourth quarter. Hall is just 91 yards shy of breaking the braking the All-Time Career Passing Yards Record set by Earl "Air Harvey of N.C. Central. Kam Smith of Winston-Salem State University held the previous career touchdown record. Harvey currently holds the record at 10,621 yards through the air.

Bowie State dominated the matchup, holding advantages in first downs (22-12), rushing yards -100-81, passing yards (373-126), total offense plays (69-65), total offensive yards (473-207) and red-zone scores-chances (4-of-6) compared to 1-of-2 for Elizabeth City State.

Ellis and Hall led Bowie State in rushing as the duo combined for 92 yards. Hall led the passing attack by completing 24-of-39 passes along with four touchdowns. The receiving core of Sesay, Lunsford, Geordan Clark and Montez Clay combined for 284 yards and three touchdowns. Sesay led all receivers with 160 reception yards on six receptions and two touchdowns.

On defense, Elijah Deshields recorded a game-high nine total tackles followed by Kareem Muslim with six and Da'Ron Holmes along with Hamidou Mapangala with four tackles each. As a defensive unit, the Bulldogs sacked two different ECSU Viking quarterbacks a total of six times.

BOX SCORE

ATTENDANCE: 1742

Kedrick Patterson led the Vikings on offense with 96 passing yards while Saunders accounted for a game-high 66 rushing yards. ECSU's Zion Riddick was the teams' reception yards leader with 58 on his only catch of the day. Taeyonn Reynolds paced Elizabeth City State (with a game-high nine tackles while teammates Miacah Cooper and Lawrence Brown tallied seven tackles each in the loss.

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