DOVER, DEL. — DOVER Del. -- Morgan State's long string of losing football seasons is something coach Ricky Diggs won't talk about with his team.
After yesterday's 41-17 loss to Delaware State, dropping the Bears to 1-6 and guaranteeing a 16th consecutive losing season, Diggs wasn't saying much to anyone else either.
"That goes back to 1979, so that's something that we don't even talk about around here," Diggs said as a homecoming crowd of 4,810 emptied Alumni Stadium.
Delaware State "just ate the clock up with their long drives," Diggs said. "Once we finally got the ball back and settled down, I think we played well. We just didn't do it soon enough."
Delaware State running back Fabian Thorne rolled through the Bears' defense for 255 yards and two touchdowns on a school-record 36 carries.
Thorne, a 5-foot-7, 200-pound senior, also caught a 10-yard scoring pass from Dennis Jones to give the Hornets a 14-0 first-quarter lead. With 14:21 left in the first half, he upped the lead to 20-0 with a 1-yard scoring run.
"The offensive line opened up big holes for me to run through. They deserve most of the credit," said Thorne, who ran for 165 yards against Morgan in a 51-20 win last season.
Morgan (0-4 in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) "played tough, but we wanted to win this one bad, especially since this is the last homecoming for a lot of us," Thorne said.
Bears linebacker James Hall wasn't as impressed with Thorne's performance as he was dismayed by his team's defensive effort.
"We just missed too many tackles; we weren't doing what we were supposed to do," Hall said.
"We practiced for them all week. It wasn't like when we practiced for [North Carolina] A&T; [which defeated the Bears, 38-32, last week]. A&T; did the opposite of what we thought they would do. We knew what Delaware State was going to do. We should have been prepared for him [Thorne] but we weren't."
Morgan was held to Shane Griffiths' 30-yard field goal during the first three quarters. Then senior quarterback Michael Moore (19-for-37, two touchdowns, two interceptions) hooked up with classmate D'Anthony Cameron for fourth-quarter touchdown passes of 10 and 9 yards.
The Hornets (2-5, 1-1) set the tone for their 11th consecutive win over the Bears on the opening possession, when they started on their own 3 after muffing the kickoff. They reeled off a nine-play, 97-yard drive that took less than four minutes, culminating with Dennis Hill's 2-yard scoring run.
Next for Morgan
Opponent: Florida A&M;
Site: Minnegan Stadium
When: Saturday, 2 p.m.
Record: 6-1
Yesterday: Idle.