Thanksgiving came early for Morgan State's long-suffering football team yesterday.
It arrived in the form of a 52-42 victory over Hampton that secured the school's first winning season in 23 years and guaranteed 13 Bears seniors a place in history.
"I wouldn't change this season for anything," said senior running back T.J. Stallings, who finished with six school records. "We left everything out on the field and finally got that winning record."
"It means everything, considering where we came from," senior tight end Visanthe Shiancoe said. "It's tremendous. Give the credit to the coach [Donald Hill-Eley]. He turned this program around from dirt."
Hill-Eley threw everything at the Pirates, who entered the day with an outside chance to tie for the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championship.
One squib kick after another. Rotating quarterbacks that he calls his duet. Bradshaw Littlejohn firing passes 65 yards. A fake conversion kick. The senior punter running 35 yards for a first down just before the clock expired. An aroused defense. Misdirection and misinformation. The coach used everything but the band.
"We were about five minutes away from making this a championship game," said Hill-Eley, whose team finished in a three-way tie for second place in the MEAC with Hampton and Florida A&M.; "I truly believed we could do that when the season started."
Early defeats to Bethune Cookman - the Bears were in it until the final minutes - and Florida A&M; prevented such an occurrence for Morgan (7-5, 5-3).
The final score of the finale was deceiving. By early in the third quarter, the Pirates (7-5, 5-3) were only as close as 49-13 because Jerome Mathis returned a kickoff 79 yards for a touchdown late in the first period.
Senior Jon Voroshilin blunted a Hampton rally with a 34-yard field goal with 11:35 remaining in the game, practically sealing the outcome. Then, Hill-Eley turned him loose on the longest run of his career on the next-to-last play of the game.
"It is a tremendous honor to leave here like this," Voroshilin said. "When we came into the program, the expectations were losing and more losing. Now the seniors can take this with them the rest of our lives. We were the pioneers."
No one could walk away more proudly than Stallings, the Randallstown native who leads college football in scoring. He scored two touchdowns yesterday to raise his yearly points total to 144.
"I wish I had him for eight more years," Hill-Eley said. "He's a great young man who will be a success in whatever he does. He and the rest of the seniors gave us something we could build upon."
Morgan's last victorious season was 1979, when the team was 9-1 before losing to Alabama A&M; in the NCAA Division II playoffs. No Morgan team had won more than four times in a season since.
The narrow defeat to Bethune Cookman was the turning point, according to Hill-Eley. At that stage 1-4, the Bears won six of their last seven games.
"These young men decided after the Bethune game that they were as good as anybody in the conference," he said.
Hampton 7 6 14 15 - 42
Morgan State 15 21 13 3 - 52
First quarter MS-Sherman 11 pass from Washington (Voroshilin kick), 12:20 MS-Stallings 3 run (Cash pass from Washington), :33 H-Mathis 79 kickoff return (Bolden kick), :17 Second quarter MS-Shiancoe 7 pass from Washington (Voroshilin kick), 13:44 H-Patrick 16 pass from Frazier (kick failed), 10:20 MS-Sherman 43 pass from Littlejohn (Voroshilin kick), 8:29 MS-Washington 35 run (Voroshilin kick), 5:38 Third quarter MS-Washington 7 run (kick failed), 12:41 MS-Stallings 29 run (Voroshilin kick), 9:22 H-Hailes 1 run (pass failed), 6:33 H-Hailes 12 run (Terran pass from Frazier), 4:16 Fourth quarter MS-FG 34 Voroshilin, 11:35 H-Blount 3 pass from Frazier (Hailes pass from Frazier), 10:51 H-Hailes 1 run (Bolden kick), 6:40 A-4,362.
Hampton Morgan
First downs 23 28
Rushes-yards 44-189 53-285
Passing 129 225
Comp-Att-Int 11-23-0 14-26-0
Return Yards 147 165
Punts-Avg. 4-40.2 2-31.5
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-7
Penalties-Yards 9-111 12-104
Time of Possession 23:59 34:47
Rushing-Hampton, Hailes 12-81, Thompson 18-58, Frazier 7-43, Dixon 4-19, Mathis 1-8, Patrick 1-(-10), Bolden 1-(-10). Morgan State, Stallings 27-121, Littlejohn 10-68, Washington 15-61, Voroshilin 1-35. Passing-Hampton, Frazier 10-17-86-0, Dixon 1-6-43-0. Morgan State, Washington 8-14-105-0, Littlejohn 6-12-120-0. Receiving-Hampton, Patrick 4-32, Mathis 2-57, Coney 2-20, Smith 1-12, Wilson 1-5, Blount 1-3. Morgan State, Sherman 5-93, Stallings 5-81, Shiancoe 2-14, Henry 1-33, Henry 1-33, Chappell 1-4.
Record run
School records set by T.J. Stallings
TDs, game: five
TDs, season: 23
Points, season: 144
Carries, season: 243
Rushing yards, season: 1,169
All-purpose yards, season: 1,929