Abraham Mercado nailed a 33-yard field goal in the 1st quarter.
Boxscore
Bear Shots
TOWSON, Md. – Grant Enders completed 15-of-19 passes for 197 yards and threw three touchdowns Saturday – two of them to fullback Tyler Wharton – to lead Towson to a 42-3 victory in front of 9,759 fans.
Morgan State suffered its most lopsided loss to the Tigers since a 30-2 loss at Towson in 2006.
Offensively we didn't get enough turns of the chains,” said coach Donald Hill-Eley. “And defensively, they were able to isolate our backers on the run, as well as the pass.”
“Our kicking game is in the right place, we just need to get everything else caught up to it.”
Morgan State traveled five miles to play its season opener against cross-town rival Towson at Johnny Unitas Stadium, and the Bears got off to a great start.
Redshirt-junior Tyrone Hendrix returned the opening kickoff 85 yards to help give the Bears great field position. The Bears came away with a 33-yard field goal by Abraham Mercado with 13:10 left in the first quarter.
Towson responded by scoring 42 unanswered points and managed to outgain the Bears in total offense yards by a margin of 534-160. In addition, MSU only finished with six total first downs, while the Tigers posted 25.
Several missed tackles by the Bears helped punctuate Towson's first scoring drive. Enders engineered a 6-play, 69-yard drive and tossed a 25-yard pass to Wharton for Towson's first touchdown at the 9:52 mark of the 1st quarter.
The Bears threatened to score mid-way through the 2nd quarter but Donovan Dickerson's quarterback sneak on 4th down and 1 came up shy of the chains at the Towson 23. The momentum of the ballgame seemed to shift from that point forward.
The Tigers answered with a 13-play, 77-yard drive capped by a 25-yard touchdown pass by Enders to Gerrard Shepard to give the Bears a 14-3 lead at halftime.
On the opening drive of the 2nd half, the Tigers picked up where they left off.
Enders led the Tigers to three more scores in the third quarter. He tossed a 12-yarder to Wharton, scrambled for an 18-yard touchdown and Sterlin Phifer added a 2-yard touchdown run with 42 seconds left in the period to push the lead to 35-3.
“They made a lot more plays than we made in all phases of the game,” said Hill. “The things about this particular team is totally different than what they were doing last year.”
Junior starting quarterback Donovan Dickerson, who left the game in the 3rd quarter due to injury, completed 6-of-10 passes for 40 yards, including an interception. Back QB Robert Council threw for 72 yards on 4-of-10 completions.
Senior Jourdan Brooks led the Bears on the ground with 48 yards on 15 carries. Senior Lamont Bryant had three receptions for 61 yards and sophomore Chris Flowers added 32 yards on three catches.
Senior defensive tackle Justin Young and senior linebacker Allen Stephens led the Bears defense with 10 tackles apiece. Sophomore cornerback Joe Rankin collected his first interception of the season.
NOTE:
One definite brightspot for the Bears was the play of the kickoff return team. The Bears managed to compile 271 total kickoff return yards (38.7 avg.) and was led by Tyrone Hendrix who finished with 140 yards on two returns.
