SOUTH HILL, VA –St. Paul's ran a balanced offensive attack against Livingstone Saturday and the Tigers denied the Blue Bears their first victory of the season, 27-6.
St. Paul's received the opening kickoff and on its first offensive play appeared to take one for a touchdown, but a holding penalty negated the score and a few plays later freshman Jammal Acree picked off a pass and the Blue Bears took over.
After three plays, the Blue Bears were set to punt the ball away, but a little trickery was in order as former quarterback and punter Bryan Aycoth faked a punt and passed for a first down. The fake punt only led to another punt several plays later. Neither team was able to put points on the board in the first quarter and the score was 0-0 after the first 15 minutes.
St. Paul's pulled off its own fourth down conversion early in the second quarter and it eventually led to a touchdown for the Tigers and they led 7-0 with 11:37 left in the first half. The two teams traded punts and then Livingstone had a second punt blocked on the game with 4:33 left in the first half. This allowed St. Paul's to put another touchdown on the board less than a minute later to go up 14-0, which ended up being the halftime score.
Livingstone received the opening kickoff of the second half. The Blue Bears were able to work the clock a little as the offense was able to hold the ball for just less than six minutes, but ultimately they were forced to punt. Less than a minute later the Tigers connected on a 66-yard touchdown reception to go up 21-0.
The Blue Bears looked to gain some momentum late in the third quarter as junior Ahmad Garrison blocked a St. Paul's field goal. Despite the positive play by the special teams, the Blue Bear offense couldn't capitalize as it was forced to punt less than a minute later. With 9:30 left in the contest the Tigers added a field goal to go up 24-0.
On the ensuing Livingstone possession, freshman Dwayne Smith caught a pass from Levon Stanley, but fumbled the ball as he was being tackled and the ball was turned over to the Tigers. Off the turnover the Tigers added a 32-yard field goal with 6:28 remaining to increase their lead to 27-0.
After the St. Paul's touchdown, the Blue Bears started with the ball on their own 40 yard line. Livingstone was able to move the ball down the field on eight plays and Levon Stanley connected with Omar McFadden for a touchdown with 3:30 left in the fourth quarter. Despite the availability of new kicker Logan Haynes, the Blue Bears opted to go for two, but the conversion attempt failed and they trailed 27-6, which ended up being the final score.
As a team the Blue Bears gained 146 total offensive yards on 48 plays with 88 coming through the air and 58 coming on the ground. St. Paul's gained a total of 275 yards, 118 on the ground and 157 through the air. Livingstone garnered eight first downs to St. Paul's 16 and each defense had an interception.
Levon Stanley led the Blue Bear passing game, completing 12 passes for 77 yards and one touchdown. Stanley was also the team's leading rusher, gaining 33 yards on the ground. Terrill Gourdine also added 19 yards rushing. Defensively the Blue Bears were led by junior Shawntez Jones who finished the game with five tackles, including two for a loss of yards.
With the loss the Blue Bears fell to 0-5 on the season and 2-0 in the conference. St. Paul's improved to 1-3 overall and 1-1 in the conference.
The Blue Bears will return home next Saturday to host the Shaw University Bears at 1:30 p.m. for Homecoming.
