QB Byron Selby looked solid in the Bears final scrimmage of the preseason.
Baltimore, Md. - The Morgan State football team held its final scrimmage Thursday evening at Hughes Stadium. Junior running back Jason Jackson led the way for the offense with 131 yards and two touchdowns. Junior linebacker Reginald Holmes and senior defensive end Temi Omotade paced the defense. The offense scored six times. The first score of the evening came on a 5-yard TD run by Jackson as the offense marched 80-yards on their first possession. Redshirt-sophomore quarterback Byron Selby hooked up with senior wideout Kelvin Dickens on the 10th play of the second drive. Selby rolled out and found Dickens streaking for a 33-yard touchdown pass.
“I feel pretty positive about what I’ve seen during the preseason,” said 4th year head coach Donald Hill-Eley. “Tonight it looked like our timing is down, and as a result there were not a lot of miscues. Overall, we played together. You didn’t see an individual effort, you saw a team effort, and that’s what you look for as a head coach. I think our future is very bright heading into the new season.”
Junior running back Craig Nelson led the first-team to another score when he darted through the middle of the line of scrimmage for a 3-yard TD. Nelson finished the night with 10 carries for 47 yards.
Selby finished the night by completing 23-of-31 passes for 307 yards with no interceptions.
“He’s a natural leader, he makes great decisions and I’m looking forward to coaching him for his next three years,” said Hill.
Second-team quarterback Kevin Veillard connected on 5-of-13 passes for 34 yards, highlighted by an exciting 12-yard scamper to paydirt for the second-team’s only score of the night. Freshman quarterback Mario Melton completed 2-of-5 passes for 31 yards and led the second-team by rushing for 69 yards.
Dickens (5-98 yards), Sean Napper (5-65) and Rodrick Wolfe (4-60) led the Bears in the receiving column. The Bears also got a lot of firepower from the tight end position as redshirt-freshman Alfonzo Custis recorded a 1-yard TD plunge, and newcomer Tyree Spinner pulled in a 12-yard TD pass from Selby.
The defense got five sacks from five different players – Justin Lawrence, Shawn Lewis, Jarrel Guyton, Mark Hicks and Kofi Nkrumah.
“Tonight was a real productive day for us on both offense and defense,” said Selby. “We came out and got a lot of work in and this week we’re going to really focus on the season-opener against Towson. We’re going to take it one game at a time.”
The Bears jump-start the 2005 season when they square-off with Towson (0-0) on Thursday, September 1st. Kick-off is scheduled for at Johnny Unitas Stadium.
