Jefferson City, MO – Quincy University’s NCAA football team traveled to Jefferson City to take on the Lincoln Blue Tigers in the first match-up in GLVC play. As the Hawks came in after a bye week and a loss to Roosevelt University, Jason Killday had one mission for his players: win on the road. With a high-powered HBCU band in the stands, the Hawks had their hands full in Dwight T. Reed Stadium.

The Hawks opened the scoring up early in the first quarter with a rushing touchdown from Kamrin Cox and an extra point from Javier Moreno Ortega to put the Hawks up 7-0. From there, a three-play drive and a punt from Lincoln gave Cox another opportunity to put QU on the scoreboard with a 29-yard touchdown pass from Bradyn Little, putting the team up 14-0 with three minutes left to play in the first quarter.

Once the second quarter started, the Quincy team began to falter and slow down with an offensive fumble and two back-to-back drives, with the Blue Tigers scoring. The Lincoln University Marching Musical Storm band members began to rock the stadium.

The Lincoln University Marching Musical Storm is the main sideline spectacle for the Blue Tiger games, bringing energy to the Lincoln football games. The musical storm works to live up to one quote,

“Drums like thunder rolling through the sky / Horns like a stiff wind, strongly blowing by Flags like lightning striking before the rain Dancers like the moving force of a hurricane Please don’t fret. You have been warned To go take cover, because here comes THE STORM!!!”

DeDe King

The Musical Storm plays famous hits like, Poison by Bell Biv DeVoe, Swag Surfin’ by Fast Life Yungstaz, and Thriller by Michael Jackson. As these songs play, onlookers see players from both sidelines dancing to the music, but it becomes hard to concentrate due to the loud noise and popular songs. Dawson Talbott, a senior defensive lineman, thought the environment was extremely tough to play in.

“Anytime you have bands like that that have good energy and are loud and are very good at what they do it makes it hard to compete against because not only are they distracting from what we’re trying to accomplish but additionally they bring an energy to their sideline that is just hard to compete with,” Talbott said.

After the sound waves of the Musical Storm began to shock the Hawks, Moreno Ortega, a former Blue Tiger, kicked a 43-yard field goal to put the Hawks on top 17-14 at halftime.

“It was a special day for me, I kicked my career long for a field goal, and it was against my old team, it couldn’t be a better day for me,” Moreno Ortega said.

That field goal became the deciding factor for the game as the Hawks would end up winning 24-21 with Cox having over 150 all-purpose yards. Little said this was an essential statement win for the Hawks.

“Kam had a great game, but it was a team effort to win. We all had competitive strain, and we did what we had to do to win,” Little said.

The Hawks go on the road to Detroit, Michigan, as they take on the 0-3 Wayne State Warriors in their final out-of-conference bout.