Tigers Claim Victory in Battle for Greater Baltimore
Tigers win! The Towson Tigers take home their 6th consecutive Battle for Greater Baltimore win over Morgan State. The win marks the first win in the Pete Shinnick era of Towson football.
The score does not tell the whole story of the game, as the Tigers shutout the Bears over 3 full quarters and the only points scored by Morgan State came in the last few minutes of the 4th. The Tigers took the lead late in the first off a Nathan Kent touchdown strike to Da’Kendall James to cap off an 8 play 85 yard drive. Kent would add a 10 yard touchdown run to make it 14-0 in the beginning of the 2nd. Keegan Vaugh would add 2 field goals to push the Tigers lead to 20-0 at half.
The Tigers did have success on the ground with 184 yards and a touchdown. Tyrell Green Jr lead the charge with 59 yards and D’Ago Hunter with 56. Nathan Kent added 38 on the ground and the lone rushing touchdown
The Bears rotated through their three quarterbacks but never really found much rhythm on offense. They went a combined 20-44 for 188 yards and 3 INT’s. The Bears struggled on the ground and only managed 97 total yards. J.J Davis lead the Bears in receiving with 3 catches for 57 yards.
The defense had its most complete game as they picked off 3 passes from Morgan State QB Duce Taylor. Robert Javier got 2 of those picks and Jesus Gibbs had a monster night for the defense as he had 6 sacks, 2.5 TFL, 1.5 sacks and a forced fumble. The Tigers also got a blocked punt from Chris Watkins. Javier was named to the FCS National Defensive Player of the Week Honorable Mention after the game.
Defensively, the Bears did hold the Tigers without points in the 2nd half. Erik Hunter and Nana Asante led the way with 9 and 6 tackles respectively. Hunter added a TFL and a forced fumble. Jae’Veyon Martin hauled in an interception for the defense as well.
Next up for the Tigers is a return trip to Unitas Stadium to battle the Norfolk State Spartans. They are coming off a blowout loss to Temple and have a similar record as Towson. They lost their first game of the year to Virginia State and then rebounded to beat Hampton in Week 2.
Offensively for the Spartans, they are led by Quarterback Otto Kuhns, who already has 6 touchdowns passes and 475 yards passing. He does have 2 INT’s. On the ground the bulk of the work has gone to Xavion Evans and Alex Henry who have a combined 241 yards and a touchdown between them. Their passing game will rely a lot on Aaron Moore, who currently has 10 catches on the year for 150 yards and 2 touchdowns
Defensively they have only gotten 3 sacks and 2 INT’s so far this year. Their defense will need to step up if they want to take down Towson. They do have 18 TFL’s so they are able to get into the backfield and cause chaos. Joseph White leads the team in tackles and Daylan Long leads them in TFL’s. In the secondary Devon Allen has 7 pass breakups and will look to add a few more this weekend.
A win here will give Towson some good momentum going forward. Kickoff is set for 4pm in Baltimore. Let’s goooooo Tigers!
