BALTIMORE, Md. -- It took a little while for the Morgan State Bears to get themselves going. However, once they stepped on the gas, there was nothing Savannah State could do to stop the Bears as they scored 35 unanswered second half points in their 42-3 rout of the Tigers at Hughes Stadium. 

The fun started for the Bears in the second quarter when quarterback Moses Skillon ran for the first of his two touchdowns from three yards out with 14:55 left. That put Morgan State up 7-0.

Savannah State answered with a 28-yard field goal from John Barron to cut the deficit to 7-3 with 7:21 remaining which would be the halftime score.

When the 3^rd quarter came around, Morgan State's offense awakened. The Bears' first drive of the half was capped by a 42-yard touchdown run by Skillon when everyone seemed to go right and he went left and found some open space leading to the score.  That helped the Bears go up 14-3 with 11:14 left. 

On their next possession, Orlando Johnson squeezed up the middle for a three-yard touchdown run with 4:32 remaining to increase the MSU lead to 21-3.

In the fourth quarter, the Bears poured it on starting with Skillon's 34-yard touchdown pass to Marcolm Banks, who raced down the sidelines to finish the play, helping the Bears increase their advantage to 28-3 with 13:06 left in the game. 

Morgan State head coach Lee Hull spoke about the offensive awakening. 

"It's been two games in a row that I have to go in at halftime and give them a little 'pep talk' to put it that way," said Hull. "They came out in the second half and performed. But we got to do that for 60 minutes, not 30 minutes."

"It was just that we weren't all in," Skillon added.  "We had to go into halftime and get our minds right. Coach Hull and Coach (Eric) Fair said a few words that got the fire in us to want to come out and do a better job. But we can't leave that on the coaches.  This is a player driven team. We have to be there for our team and pick these guys up."

Skillon had quite a day, completing only 10 of 23 passes for 134 yards and a touchdown while running for 104 yards and two touchdowns. 

Then the defense wanted to join the scoring party. 

Defensive back Peterson Janvier stood back in his own endzone and caught a 50-yard field goal attempt from John Barron that was short, used his blocks and ran the ball into the endzone from 108 yards out. But according to the NCAA rules, it will count as a 100-yard effort.

"I didn't think he was going to miss it," said Janvier. "But like I told my players in the locker room, next turnover, we're going to get our blocks and the person that has the ball in their hand, lead them to the box. That's what we did. I followed my blockers and when I got in the endzone, I found everybody that I saw that blocked for me and congratulated them. Because without them, I would've never got to the box."

"(Peterson) has been all over me to get him back there as a kickoff returner," Hull said about the play. "So I guess I might have to give him his shot. We practiced that play all the time. Putting someone back on field goals. If it's short, return it. The defensive guys did a nice job blocking for him. (Janvier) did a nice job of returning the ball and making guys miss."

That effort extended the Morgan State advantage to 35-3 with 9:24 remaining. 

Capping the scoring for the Bears was linebacker Brandon Griffin as he recovered a fumble from Tiger quarterback Leon Prunty, who was sacked by defensive end Malachi Washington and ran it in from 30 yards out with 5:38 left in the game. 

The Morgan State defense got the job done again by forcing four turnovers, three of them on interceptions.  They also recorded four quarterback sacks on the evening.

"The defense is playing very well," Hull said. "Coach Mike Fanoga and his staff are putting our guys in position to be successful. It's not just one person making plays now. So he's doing a great job of getting guys free as far as sacks and plays for a loss. The secondary is doing a great job of pass covering. So it's been a team effort by those guys."

Next week for the Bears is their homecoming game at Hughes Stadium as they host the Hampton Pirates at 1 p.m.