Morehouse rolls to 47-9 win over Miles in Labor Day Golden Classic

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- By the start of the third quarter, the light rain falling on the turf at Legion Field had turned into a downpour. Tropical Storm Lee was announcing its presence at the fifth Labor Day Golden Classic, but Morehouse College had already stolen the show.

The Maroon Tigers jumped all over Miles College from the start, grabbing a 23-point halftime lead and running away with a 47-9 victory Sunday to spoil Reginald Ruffin's debut as Golden Bears' head coach.

"I put all the blame on myself," said Ruffin, who came to Miles after five years as the defensive coordinator at Tuskegee. "I didn't have the guys ready to play. I thought we were ready to play, but unfortunately we weren't. I'm just very disappointed in myself, and I apologize to my coaches, I apologize to my team for not having them ready to play."

Led by junior quarterback Byron Ingram's two rushing touchdowns and one through the air, Morehouse encountered minimal resistance on its way to 427 yards of total offense. Ingram completed 19 of 29 passes for 167 yards, while David Carter, Mychal Harrison and Winston Bodrick combined for four more rushing touchdowns.

"We pride ourselves on a fast offense," Ingram said. "We just pushed the tempo and caught their defense off-guard."

From the start, Morehouse gashed the Golden Bears defense time and time again in the season opener for both Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference teams. Much of the Maroon Tigers' 29 first downs and 249 rushing yards came via runs straight up the gut of the Miles defense.

"Honestly, almost everything was working," Ingram said.



"We just switched up our plays, stretched it on them and everything worked to our advantage."

The Golden Bears (0-1, 0-0) got their lone touchdown of the night when junior backup quarterback David Thomas scored on a 1-yard run with 6:01 left to play. Miles was held to 123 yards of offense and gained just eight first downs.

"We're young," Ruffin said. "We have 89 newcomers, so guys are still adapting to the philosophy.

"We've just got to go back to teaching and re-teaching and getting them lined up. The biggest thing that we had a problem with was the alignment. We had problems getting the script called on the formations."

After freshman kicker Matthew Sims missed a 32-yard field goal on Miles' opening drive of the game, the Maroon Tigers struck with a 10-play, 80-yard drive capped by a 4-yard touchdown plunge by Harrison.

Winston scored from 1 yard out less than four minutes later, and Ingram passed for a touchdown and ran for another in the second quarter as the Maroon Tigers entered the break with a 26-3 lead.

"We've just got to get back to the drawing board," said Miles sophomore running back Jordan Lewis, who led the Golden Bears with 68 rushing yards on 19 carries. "The season doesn't stop just because of one loss."

Starting in his first game for Miles, Northern Illinois transfer and junior quarterback Casey Weston faced constant pressure from the Morehouse defense and never developed any rhythm.

Weston had a bobbled pass intercepted in the first quarter and completed 7 of 13 passes for just 11 yards.