BLUEFIELD, WV — Historical past took a deep breath and exhaled at Mitchell Stadium on Saturday afternoon in an HBCU homecoming win that was a long-time-coming. Bluefield State College, the tiny West Virginia-based HBCU that after vanished from the soccer map, earned its first CIAA win since 1954 with an exhilarating 35–33 victory over Shaw College.
That’s proper — seventy-one years between CIAA wins. For an HBCU that dropped soccer for 4 many years, left the convention amid desegregation, and rejoined a couple of years in the past solely to go winless, this was greater than a only a homecoming win. It was a resurrection.
A Day for the Large Blue Devoted
The Large Blue began the afternoon like a program uninterested in ready on historical past. On Shaw’s first play from scrimmage, defensive again Zaire Riley jumped a route and took it 34 yards to the home for a pick-six. That tone-setting play was adopted by a 34-yard landing strike from Brice Koontz to Tyler Wilson, a security, and a 70-yard punt return landing from Ja’Shawn Harris that gave Bluefield State a 22–7 lead after one quarter.
Shaw clawed again behind Fabian Diggs and Alexander Marsh, chopping the result in 22–19 by halftime and briefly taking management with a third-quarter rating to go up 26–22. However this time, the Large Blue didn’t fold.
Koontz, who threw for 234 yards and three touchdowns, led a pair of clutch drives — together with a 98-yard march capped by a 21-yard strike to Reginald Hairston and a fourth-quarter dagger to Julian Crawley. When Shaw answered late to drag inside two, Bluefield State recovered the onside kick and knelt out a victory many years within the making.
For second-year head coach Davon Morgan, the second was as emotional because it was validating.
“Happy with my guys and the way we bounced again. First CIAA win in 50 years! It’s by no means simple altering a program however we belief the method,” Morgan mentioned through Twitter.
Morgan, a former Virginia Tech security who performed within the NFL, took over a group that went winless in 2023 and endured a 91–0 loss to Virginia Union final fall. As a substitute of letting that outline them, he and his group have continued to grind. Saturday’s efficiency — full with seven sacks and relentless power — confirmed that the assumption has lastly caught as much as the expertise.
For the broader HBCU soccer world, Bluefield State’s win stands as a reminder that progress typically strikes slowly however nonetheless strikes. The Large Blue’s lengthy street again to relevance underscores what makes HBCU sports activities particular. It faces many odds deep within the hills of West Virginia, with location being one in every of its many obstacles. Although it’s an HBCU, its student-population continues to be majority white and many individuals typically confuse it with a college ten minutes down the street with the identical first title in Virginia.
However — if just for a second — none of that mattered on Saturday. It was as if the HBCU soccer gods seemed down on Bluefield State and rewarded this system for its perseverance.
