The young Lincoln Lions football team is a much improved team on the field, recording more total yards and more rushing yards in Saturday's game against Livingstone College at Lions Stadium.  Those improvements, however did not always translate in points on the scoreboard as the Lions dropped a 35-19 decision to the Blue Bears in the conference opener for both teams.
 
The Lions fall to 0-4 and 0-1 in Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association games.  Livingstone improves to 4-0 and 1-0 in league play.
 
Lincoln produced a season high 113 yards on the ground with the bulk of the yardage coming from a pair of newcomers, Amir Gerald (Washington, D.C./Woodrow Wilson) and Khalid Wilson (Chesapeake, Va./Oscar Frommel Smith).  Gerald ran for 52 yards and Wilson, in his first game back from injury added 40 yards.  Justin Johnson (Etters, Pa./Red Land) picked up 23 yards, mostly in the fourth quarter.
 
The rushing effort helped the Lions to a 279-278 advantage in total yards gained in the game, a feat the Lions had not accomplished since a 20-10 win over Shaw University in 2015.
 
Eban Jackson threw for 166 yards to five different receivers and also ran for two of the Lions three scores.  Shoye Sampson (Richmond, Va./John Marshall) had four catches for 84 yards  while Richie Goslee (Suitland, Md./The Avalon School) added three catches for 46 yards.
 
It was the Lions special teams however that got them on the scoreboard. The Blue Bears had put up two scores in the first quarter to take a 14-0 lead.  In the second quarter on LC's first drive, the Lions pinned the Blue Bears deep in their own territory and forced a punt from the end zone.  Roosevelt Jordan (Shamong, N.J./Seneca) blocked the kick and the ball was recovered by Rahmel Turner (Hamilton, N.J /Hamilton West) for the touchdown, pulling the Lions within one score 14-7.
 
Jackson added a two-yard touchdown in the waning seconds of the second quarter to make the score 21-13 at the half.  Later in the fourth quarter, Jackson added another quarterback keeper touchdown to round out Lincoln's scoring on the afternoon.
 
Defensively, the Lions produced a season high three sacks on the afternoon (Solomon Bassett (Fort Worth, Texas/Boswell), Devon Cathcart (Chicago, Ill./Thornton Fractional South) and D'Rico Cook (Waldorf, Md./St. Charles)).   Rob Thomas III (Cleveland, Ohio/Glenville) led the team with eight tackles while Cathcart added seven, three resulting in loss of yards.  Bassett also had three tackles for loss.
 
Some special team items to note:  Pinter Cole Klubeck became just the sixth player in program history to record 3,000+ yards punting with 210 yards in Saturday's game.  The Lions tied a school record with two blocked kicks in the game.  Twin brothers Roosevelt and Samuel Jordan (Shamong, N.J./Seneca) were responsible for the blocks.
 
The Lions return to action on Saturday, October 5, 2019 when they face Johnson C. Smith in Charlotte, North Caroilina.