WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – West Liberty University head football coach Roger Waialae didn’t need a stat sheet to figure out why his Hilltoppers came away on the short end of a 24-3 score in Saturday’s season opener against Catawba (N.C.) at Russek Field.
“It’s pretty simple,” Waialae said. “You can’t turn the ball over eight or nine times and expect to win a football game.”
The turnover bug that bit West Liberty hard a year ago returned for a second helping in Saturday’s lid-lifted as 17 of the 24 points posted by the North Carolina team stemmed from one of the Hilltoppers’ school-record eight turnovers.
Following a scoreless first quarter, Catawba opened the scoring at 12:42 of the second quarter on a 26-yard TD pass from Jacob Charest to Peyton McCollum. That capped a short 41-yard, 4-play drive after West Liberty had been forced to punt from deep in its own territory.
The deficit climbed to 14-0 on the Hilltoppers’ first snap after the kickoff when quarterback L.D. Crow coughed up a fumble while being sacked. Defensive lineman Jarrod Cave scooped up the bouncing ball and rumbled 15 yards into the end zone.
It was one of 11 sacks yielded by a WLU offensive line which was battling injury woes coming out of preseason camp.
“We weren’t very good up front today,” Waialae said, “and that was a major disappointment. We have to do a better job protecting the quarterback.”
West Liberty got on the scoreboard later in the quarter when defensive tackle Leonidas Redding recovered a Charest fumble at the Catawba 22.
The Hilltoppers were unable to move the sticks but Jeff Hoak came on to boom a 43-yard field goal through the pipes with 5:08 left in the half.
Crow had to leave the game after taking a sack during that possession and was unable to return, leaving true freshman Dylan Lagarde and junior backup Chris Kiedaisch to handle the quarterbacking chores the rest of the way.
With both teams struggling to mount a consistent attack, West Liberty had a chance to make it a one-score game early in the third quarter when Marco Ricchetti fell on a Catawba fumble at the Indians’ 41.
Lagarde converted a fourth-and-7 snap with a 33-yard pass to Dominic Cooper to set up first-and-goal at the Catawba 5, but another sack stalled the drive and Hoak’s 34-yard field goal try drifted wide right.
The Indians closed out the scoring in the fourth quarter on a 6-yard touchdown run by Bobby Morrison and a 31-yard field goal by Chad Hollandsworth.
The Hilltopper quarterbacks combined for 258 passing yards but lost 71 yards on the 11 sacks. That dropped West Liberty’s net rushing for the day to a net of minus-33 yards. Bo Whitney had 7 catches for 57 yards and Cooper had 3 grabs for a game-high 68 receiving yards. Kenjay Trueblood rushed for 52 yards on 20 carries.
Catawba finished with just 14 first downs and 246 total yards. Charest completed 13-of-27 passes for 120 yards with McCollum’s 3 catches for 63 yards pacing the Indian receiving corps.
“I’m very proud of the way the defense played today but the last thing I expected to see was our offense playing that poorly,” Waialae said. “I thought our offense was better than our defense in camp but for some reason the offense didn’t play well today. We weren’t together at all and that’s something we need to get fixed. We have better talent than we showed today.”
The Hilltoppers hit the road next Saturday for a 1:30 p.m. kickoff at Virginia State.
“This is just one game. It’s not the entire season,” Waialae said. “Our 2009 team lost the first game and came back to win the next 11. We’ll put this behind us tonight, watch the tape on Sunday and get some things corrected.”
GAME NOTES
- It’s the second consecutive year that West Liberty has committed eight turnovers in its home opener. The Hilltoppers threw six interceptions and lost a pair of fumbles in last year’s 27-19 loss to Southern Connecticut State.
- West Liberty extended its consecutive-game scoring streak to 123 games but failed to score a touchdown for the first time since a 34-0 loss at Fairmont State on Oct. 21, 2000
- Catawba has now scored in 199 consecutive games, the sixth-longest active streak in NCAA Division II football.
- The Hilltoppers have lost five consecutive season openers.
