BUCKHANNON, W.Va. – Junior quarterback Dakota Conwell ran for three touchdowns and passed for another score here Saturday to lead an injury-riddled West Liberty University football team to a 38-31 win against West Virginia Wesleyan in Mountain East Conference action at Cebe Ross Stadium.
Conwell ran for more than 150 yards in the first half alone and wound up setting a school quarterback rushing record with 14 carries for 177 yards. The junior standout also had a solid afternoon through the air, completing 19-of-30 passes for 191 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions.
“Dakota made a lot of big plays when nobody else was really making any but that’s what being a leader is all about,” WLU head coach Roger Waialae said. “I thought we came out a little flat today and he really carried us.”
After taking a 24-14 halftime lead, West Liberty (3-2, 3-1) seemed to have the game in hand when Conwell scampered in from 12 yards out for his third TD and a 31-14 Hilltopper bulge with just 4:18 left in the third quarter.
The Bobcats (0-5, 0-5) didn’t quit. Tailback Mike Anderson turned a short flare pass into an 85-yard touchdown sprint up the sideline and a 28-yard Nick Banta field goal made it a one-possession game, 31-24, at 9:38 of the fourth quarter.
A penalty on the kickoff pushed WLU back to its own 10 but Conwell calmly guided the Hilltoppers on a clock-gobbling 90-yard, 14-play march, capping it with a 5-yard TD flip to Daree Goodwin in the back of the end zone for a 38-24 lead with just 2:24 to play.
Wesleyan QB Ryan Deal fired a 29-yard TD pass to WR Marcus Smith, cutting the gap to 38-31 with 1:16 still on the clock, but the onside kick failed and the Black and Gold was able to run out the clock.
The Bobcats had drawn first blood with a 23-yard scoring strike from Deal to DeShaun Burgess on the game’s opening possession but a 30-yard Christian Morris field goal and a 2-yard TD burst from TB Jeremiah Ortiz sent West Liberty into the second quarter with a 10-7 lead.
Deal tossed a 2-yard scoring pass to Anthony Okray for a 14-10 Wesleyan lead early in the second frame but Conwell put WLU ahead to stay later in the quarter with a dazzling 57-yard run that saw him shake off a pair of would-be tacklers and slip away from another while tight-roping the left sideline. Conwell made it 24-14 with a 33-yard scramble just 40 seconds before intermission.
West Liberty racked up nearly 450 yards of total offense on the afternoon. Ortiz backed Conwell on the ground with a workmanlike 59 yards on 23 carries while WR Anton McCallum had 79 yards on 4 catches to lead the receiving corps. Sophomore CB Terrance Baldwin led the defense with 11 tackles – all solo hits.
Deal completed 19-of-34 passes for 284 yards and 4 TDs for the Bobcats. Anderson ran for 92 yards on 17 carries and had 92 more yards through the air on three catches. Burgess added 6 catches for 84 yards and LB Mike Savage had a game-high 16 tackles.
“We are pretty banged up in the secondary,” Waialae said. “We left three DBs at home and a couple more got hurt today so we may have to move some people around next week. Even so, we need to play with more intensity. We have a very good Charleston team coming in and we’ll have to be better than we were today.”
The Hilltoppers return home to host Charleston on Saturday in the annual Homecoming Game. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. at West Family Stadium.
