Shaw University Bears Claw Their Way to a 26-21 Homecoming Victory
(Photo courtesy of Donald Watkins, Jr.)
Durham, NC – The Shaw University Bears defeated the Winston-Salem State University Rams 26-21 in the 24th meeting between the teams.
Senior quarterback Keon Marsh went 19 for 29 passing with an interception and 3 passing touchdowns. Junior wide receiver Marquis Gorham had a big day with 188 all-purpose yards and 2 receiving touchdowns. Gorham caught the 25-yard go-ahead touchdown pass from Marsh with 4:11 left in the game.
“Aye man, Marquis is a special football player,” Bear’s head coach, Adrian Jones said. “Like I tell people ‘You can’t practice hard enough to go without speed’. He’s probably one of the fastest guys in this conference. When you play against him he’s electrifying.”
Special teams played a critical role in the today’s win for the Bears. From punts, the Bears forced the Rams to start three of their drives inside their own 20-yard line. A 62-yard punt by junior Beni Kinsemi forced the Rams to start a drive from their own 8-yard line.
The Bears also had 59 punt return-yards versus the Rams one punt return-yard and 100 kickoff return-yards versus the Rams 77 kickoff return-yards.
“That’s why they call it special teams, it’s special,” Jones said. “You gotta be a special football player to play (special teams). We got good field possession all day and that helped our offense out.”
The Bears’s defense held the Rams scoreless with only 109 yards of total offense in the first half. Rams head coach, Kienus Boulware, made a quarterback change at the beginning of the second half from freshman Dominque Graves to redshirt senior Emiere Scaife. The Rams finished the game with 381 yards of total offense to the Bears’s 243 yards of total offense.
However the Bears’s defense made big plays when they needed. One being an 82-yard pick-six from sophomore defensive back Kevin Sherman on the last play of the first half.
“Big time players make big plays,” Jones said. “We expect a lot from Sherman…We didn’t think he was gonna go all the way to the end zone. But that was the momentum right there.”
Freshman linebacker, Corinthian Hudson, Jr., forced a sack at the end of the game to seal the deal.
“We just showed heart and pride and we weren’t going to give up in this one,” Bears’s graduate senior running back Dorrel McClain said. “We had faith and we believed and our defense gave us confidence.”
The Rams (4-4, CIAA 3-2) will play Fayetteville State on the road on November 3. This game will be less dramatic as today’s lost ends the Rams’s hopes of winning the CIAA Southern Division and playing for a CIAA Championship. The Bears were excited to be the team to end the Rams’s championship aspirations.
“Don’t ever look over Shaw University when you come play us at home,” Jones said. “It’s simple as that.”
Riding their first three-game winning streak since 2013, The Bears (4-4, CIAA 3-2) play at St. Augustine’s in the Raleigh Classic on November 3.
“It’s very big for the program,” Jones said when asked about today’s win. “It’s not just Shaw Football, but the university itself. National TV, everyone looking at it, from the east coast to the west coast. Great football game, great atmosphere and the way we came out and won…you can’t ask for a better game.