RICHMOND, Va. – Bowie State earned a huge CIAA divisional win on Saturday afternoon, knocking off the previous Northern Division leader Virginia Union Panthers by a score of 27-13. The win propels the Bulldogs into first place in the North, improving to 6-2 overall, 3-1 in league play and 2-1 in the North.   GAME REPLAY (ON DEMAND)
 
Virginia Union scored on the games' opening possession when Jefferson Souza kicked a 39-yard field goal with 10:54 on the clock for the early 3-0 lead.
 
Bowie State senior Amir Hall (Bowie, Md.) connected with redshirt junior Brandon Abrams (Baltimore, Md.) for a 56-yard touchdown at the 9:39 mark of the first quarter to shift the advantage over to the Bulldogs at 7-3. Junior Gene Carson (Accokeek, Md.) booted a 17-yard field with 4:03 left in the first quarter to give the Bulldogs a 10-3 lead.
 
Carson added another field goal, this time for 23 yards with five seconds left in the second quarter to send Bowie State into halftime with a 13-3 advantage.
 
Virginia Union quarterback Darius Taylor rushed for 6-yard touchdown and Souza added the extra point to trim the Bowie State lead to 13-10 with 3:01 left in third quarter.
 
Senior Maurice Williams (Baltimore, Md.) scored on a 40-yard touchdown pass from Hall to give Bowie State a 20-10 advantage with 11:57 to go in the contest. With the TD pass, Hall moves into second on the CIAA's All-Time TD Passing record list surpassing Earl "Air" Harvey (N.C. Central / 1985-1988) record of 89. The current conference career TD passing record (96) is held by Winston-Salem State's Kameron Smith (2010-2012). Through today's game, Hall now has 9,892 career passing yards, leaving him 728 yards from tying Harvey's CIAA career passing yards record.
 
The Panthers closed the gap to 20-13 with just over nine minutes to play, following a 43-yard Souza field goal.
 
Abrams capped off a 14-play, 88-yard drive with a 9-yard touchdown run to put the nail in the coffin and lift the Bulldogs into first place in the CIAA North.
 
Hall completed 33-of-49 passes for a game-high 370 yards and Abrams rushed for a team-high 55 yards to pace Bowie State's offense. Hall also rushed for 47 yards in the contest. Redshirt sophomore Montez Clay (Baltimore, Md.) led all receivers with 97 reception yards on 11 catches. Senior Derrick Tate (Baltimore, Md.) led the Bulldogs' defense with seven tackles while freshman Joshua Pryor (Baltimore, Md.), redshirt junior Tommar Phillips (Lanham, Md.) and senior Roger Richardson (Glenn Dale, Md.) chipped in five tackles each in the victory.
 
Virginia Union (5-2, 3-1, 2-1) was led by Tabyus Turner's 131 rushing yards. Taylor ended the contest as the teams' second leading rusher with 100 yards and added 43 passing yards, completing just 9-of-28 passes.
 
The Bulldogs will play its final regular season road game of the season next Saturday (October 27th), taking on Lincoln University of Pennsylvania at 1 p.m.