Shaw’s Defense Helps Bears to a 24-7 Victory Over Miles
Fairfield, AL – The Bears of Shaw University (1-0) started their 2007 football campaign on the road with a 24-7 victory over the Golden Bears of Miles College (0-1). Despite a cloudy and rainy day, the Bears were still able to get things moving in their favor as they got warmed up in the second quarter.
The Golden Bears got
on the board first with a 15-yard catch by Darrell LeBeaux, but after that
it was all Shaw for the remainder of the contest. Shaw would not get on the
board until the second quarter off of a 27-yard field goal by Ryne Powell
(Jr., 5-9, K, Brown Summit, NC). From there the Bears would go on to
score twice in the third on a 6-yard run by Aaron Ellison (So., 5-10,
RB, Hawthorne, FL) and a 32-yard catch by DeAndre Okonji (So., 6-3,
WR, Prichard, AL) and they would get their last score in the fourth with a
1-yard run by Ellison to make it 24-7 Shaw.
The Bears Defense showed them the way as they held Miles to only 81 yards of total offense and to a negative seven yards rushing. The defense had 5 sacks for a total of 43 yards loss and held the Golden Bears to only 2 of 16 third-down conversions. The Bears defense was led by Tiquan Collins (So., 6-1, LB, James City, NC) who had 10 tackles total and a sack for a loss of 7-yards. Aiding Collins was Tomarcio Levy (Sr., 6-0, DB, Jackson, MS) who had seven tackles on the night with a sack and an interception that he ran back for 21-yard which would set up a Bears score.
The offense was not out done as they were led by Raymond Williams (Fr., 5-11, TB, Cleveland, OH) who complied 84 of the Bears 119-yards on the ground. Williams had only 17 carries on the night but also chiming in for the Shaw was Ellison, who scored two of the Bears three touchdowns on the night. Ellison rushed for a total of 19-yards in the Bears victory over Miles. Shaw went a perfect 3-for-3 in the red zone as they capitalized on great field position the entire night.
“I thought that we played well tonight and especially the defense,” said Coach Asberry. “I am very proud of the work that the defense did tonight. They held Miles under 100-yards of total yard offense and that is a hard job for any defense, but the coaches did a great job recruiting and it showed tonight. Despite all that, we have to work on minimizing the number of penalties because we had 13 for 124-yards and you cannot win games with that many penalties,” stated Coach Asberry.
The Bears will be back in action on Saturday, September 8th as they travel to Jacksonville, FL to take on Edward Waters College as they participate in the Willie Gary Classic. The game is set to begin at 5:00 pm. For more information contact Shaw University Office of Sports Information at mmerritt@shawu.edu
