WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – West Liberty University head football coach Roger Waialae isn’t going to let the perfect storm of misfortune and missed opportunities which led to last week’s 20-19 upset loss to Edinboro drown out the No. 20 Hilltoppers’ quest for another magical season. After all, as the reigning West Virginia Conference Coach of the Year noted, that opening game setback has left West Liberty in a pretty familiar place.
“We lost in Game One last year but we re-focused and took care of business,” Waialae said. “I saw a lot of similarities to that loss on Saturday but we have a lot of veteran guys who know what it takes to battle back. We need to put this behind us, fix the mistakes and move on.”
That’s exactly what Waialae and his coaching staff set out to do in practice this week as the Hilltoppers began preparations for Saturday’s game at perennial Northeast-10 power Southern Connecticut State. The primary concern coming out of the Edinboro game was the lack of cohesiveness on an offense that replaced three starters on the offensive line and a pair of 1,000-yard receivers.
Senior quarterback Zach Amedro passed for 330 yards on the day – his 14th consecutive 300-yard game – but most of that came in the first half while the Hilltoppers were building a 19-7 lead. West Liberty was shut out in the second half and managed less than 100 yards of total offense over the final two quarters.
“Probably the biggest disappointment was the play of our offensive line,” Waialae said. “It doesn’t matter how talented you are individually, this is a team game and you have to work together as a unit. We have to do a better job in that area.”
The Hilltoppers did find some encouraging signs coming out of the loss. A defensive unit that had allowed an average of 619 yards and 54 points in its final three games last November held Edinboro to just 9 first downs and 251 yards of total offense while racking up 6 quarterback sacks and 13 tackles-for-loss.
“I thought our defensive line was very good,” Waialae said. “They were physical and they made plays. The defense on the whole played well but we still need to work together better as a unit in order to eliminate the big plays. Edinboro probably got half of their yards on just four plays.”
He’s right. The Fighting Scots gained 131 yards on four snaps Saturday with three of those plays leading directly to Edinboro touchdowns. The Hilltoppers held the visitors to just 120 yards of total offense and 5 first downs on the other 51 plays.
The best news for West Liberty fans going forward is that Waialae and his coaches came away disappointed but not discouraged.
“After looking at the tape, we did see a lot of mistakes but they’re things that can be corrected,” Waialae said. “I think we’re actually a more talented football team than we were a year ago but we didn’t play together and we didn’t play smart against Edinboro.”
Waialae continued on; “We lost our first game a year ago and bounced back by taking it one week at a time the rest of the way. We’re facing the very same challenge again, beginning this week.”
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