WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The University of Charleston rallied from a 9-point second half deficit and held off a late West Liberty charge here Saturday afternoon to crash the Hilltoppers’ Homecoming party with a wild 42-37 shootout win at West Family Stadium.
After getting a 35-yard field goal from Christian Morris in the final minutes of the first half to take a 17-14 lead into the locker room, West Liberty (3-3, 3-2) pushed that margin to 23-14 midway through the third quarter when QB Dakota Conwell hit streaking WR Anton McCallum in stride for a 67-yard TD bomb.
Charleston (5-1, 5-1) answered with a 75-yard, 7-play march capped by a 3-yard touchdown run from TB Marvin Elam.
That cut the margin to 23-21 and set the stage for what may have the biggest play in a game filled with big plays as UC pulled off a surprise onside kick with reserve running back Josef Hinnant recovering at the Charleston 47.
Six plays later, backup QB Mason Olszewski flipped a 3-yard scoring strike to WR Rashaun Dickerson and the Golden Eagles took a 28-23 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Hilltoppers took the ensuing kickoff and moved quickly across midfield. Conwell sprinted 33 yards to the UC 7 after being flushed out of the pocket on third-and-10 but the big gain was nullified by a holding penalty. West Liberty was forced to punt and Charleston ground out another long drive with TB Tevion Cappe slamming in from a yard out for a 35-23 lead with 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
“The onside kick was a very good call on their part,” WLU head coach Roger Waialae said. “Each possession is really important in a game like this. That gave them an extra possession and then we failed to take advantage of our own opportunity which put us in a hole.
“I liked the way we responded offensively. We came right back and scored on our next two possessions but we just couldn’t get over the hump.”
West Liberty struck quickly as Conwell fired a quick out to McCallum, who picked up a great block from fellow WR Daree Goodwin and sprinted untouched down the left sideline for a 71-yard TD, trimming the gap to 35-30 with 9:31 still to play. Charleston QB Jeremy Johnson led a time-consuming 10-play, 70-yard march, capping it with a 16-yard TD pass to WR Joey Augustin, restoring the 12-point margin at 42-30 with less than 4 minutes remaining.
Conwell led WLU right back down the field for another score, finding McCallum in the end zone with a 9-yard touchdown strike at the 1:47 mark but the Golden Eagles recovered the onside kick and ran all but 14 seconds off the clock before punting it away. Conwell’s desperation pass on the last play of the game was intercepted.
Goodwin finished with 155 yards on 6 catches – several of the circus variety – while McCallum had 181 yards and 3 TDs on 7 catches. Conwell completed 19-of-32 passes for a career-high 399 yards and went over 400 yards of total offense with 28 rushing yards on 10 carries.
Jeremiah Ortiz added 75 rushing yards on 14 tries as West Liberty finished the day with 515 yards of total offense on just 61 snaps, an average of nearly 8.5 yards per play.
Senior LB Andrew Faraimo led the West Liberty defense with a career-high 15 tackles, including 13 solo hits and 2 tackles-for-loss. Sophomore CB Terrance Baldwin was charted with 10 stops.
Johnson completed 17-of-28 passes for 217 yards while rushing for 107 yards on 19 attempts. The Golden Eagles showed good balance on offense, rushing for 229 yards on 53 carries while adding 220 more through the air. They finished with a 33:30 to 26:30 advantage in time of possession and a 27-21 edge in first downs.
“Both offenses played really well today but somebody had to lose,” Waialae said. “It’s really frustrating that it had to be us because we did a lot of good things today. Dakota is really starting to get a great understanding of the offense and we moved the ball through the air and on the ground.
“Daree put up those numbers against one of the best cornerbacks in the nation and McCallum showed what he’s capable of now that we’ve finally got him healthy. We need to put this loss behind us and build on the positives going forward, starting with our trip to (UVA)-Wise next week.”
The Hilltoppers head south next weekend to take on UVA-Wise. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. in Wise, Va.
