Staff report

SALISBURY — Livingstone’s football team makes its first road trip of the season on Saturday.

It’s a long one (about 380 miles) to Maryland to take on the Bowie State Bulldogs.

This will be the Blue Bears’ first CIAA game of 2024. Kickoff at Bulldog Stadium is set for 4 p.m.

Bowie State has provided memories for the Blue Bears in recent seasons, both good and bad.

Last season, playing at home, Livingstone stunned Bowie State 31-18 for its first victory over Bulldogs since 2014. Bowie State had an awful performance with 10 penalties and seven fumbles. Livingstone forced most of those fumbles and produced four sacks.

Livingstone’s last trip to Bowie State provided negative memories. Bowie State roughed up the Blue Bears 53-7 in 2022.

Bowie State (0-2) is favored by 23 points over the Blue Bears by the Massey Ratings, which give Livingstone only a 4 percent chance of claiming an upset victory on Saturday.

Bowie State lost to a stout Lenoir-Rhyne team on opening day and fell 17-14 to Davenport, a Michigan-based squad, last Saturday.

The Blue Bears (2-1) bounced back from a lopsided loss to University of  Charleston to win at Alumni Memorial Stadium against Virginia University at Lynchburg and Allen University. The VUL win was pretty routine, but the Allen game was exciting, as Jason Zapata’s third field goal of the game came in the latter stages and made the difference in a 23-21 victory.

Freshman defensive end Davion Watkins was the standout for the Blue Bears against Allen and was honored by the CIAA after registering two sacks and forcing a fumble.

Bowie State QB Kevin Taylor threw for 191 yards in the loss to Davenport. Bowie State rushed for only 39 yards last week.

Shawan Lewis was the Bulldogs’ defensive standout with two tackles for loss and a sack.