PETERSBURG, VA – The Shaw football team won the CIAA’s Eastern Division crown for the first time in its history, defeating Virginia State 14-7 before a crowd of 7,860 at Rogers Stadium.

Shaw (7-2, 5-2) got on the board first as Dion McIver scored from three yards out late in the first quarter to give the Bears a 7-0 lead a lead the took into halftime.

Shaw received the ball first to begin the second half and proceeded to put together an eight-play 82-yard drive, which was capped off by a Jermonty Kimbrough to Marquise Rutherford 26-yard touchdown pass and catch and Shaw extended its lead to 14-0.  But the Virginia State (6-3, 3-3) defense held tough and would not allow the Bears to score the rest of the game.  With 3:42 remaining in the third quarter, Trojan quarterback Michael Terry found Jerome Jeter in the end zone for a 20-yard touchdown, which cut the Trojan deficit in half 14-7.

Both defenses held and the Bear got the ball back with just over two minutes remaining and ran out the clock. 

Kimbrough completed 12-of-19 passes for 196 yards and one touchdown and ran for another 29.  Shaw running back Dion McIver carried the ball 28 times for 110 yards.  Trojan quarterback Michael Terry was 13-of-27 for 122 yards.  Shaw amassed 359 yards of total offense, while Virginia State had 175.