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Glenville State, West Liberty set for MEC clash

Members of the Glenville State University football team look on as head coach Mike Kellar talks following a fall practice. The Pioneers will welcome West Liberty for a 1 p.m. Saturday Mountain East Conference showdown at Morris Stadium. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

GLENVILLE — West Liberty will be out for a 4-1 start for head coach Roger Waialae when the Hilltoppers collide with Glenville State 1 p.m. Saturday inside Morris Stadium.

The G-men, now 2-2 overall and 1-2 in the Mountain East Conference, return home for the second time and attempt to remain unbeaten.

GSU jumped out to a 10-0 lead at Wheeling last week, but allowed 20 straight points before falling 34-23.

WLU (3-1, 2-1) watched a 20-7 lead versus W.Va. Wesleyan turn into a 21-20 deficit before Justin Kaplan drilled the game-winning 48-yard field goal with 10 seconds left.

“We’re disappointed in last week. Faked a punt and unfortunately didn’t get it. We had it, but we didn’t execute it very well. We lost a game we felt we could’ve won,” admitted Pioneer head coach Mike Kellar.

“On to the next one. I coached with these guys for a year and know them very well. They just won a great game. It’s crazy. Usually when you watch the tape you watch it cut up. When I heard how they won I wanted to watch it straight through.”

Coach Kellar, whose team couldn’t get the run game going against the Cardinals, added “I’m sure they weren’t too crazy it came down to the wire, but to win it like they did showed their team has some character and will compete.

“If you watch them on tape they play hard and got some playmakers on both sides of the ball. We’re going to have to play well to beat them, but right now we’ve had a couple good practices.”

One of the playmakers for coach Waialae is Shon Stephens, who along with leading Division II with seven interceptions has returned a pair to the house. The defense also features Edwin Linares-Rivera and Cameron Rice, who respectively lead the team with three sacks and six tackles for loss.

Quincy Wimbish (66-242-1) paces the WLU backfield while signal-caller Rudy Garcia has completed at least nine passes to the quartet of Rashawn Harvey, Chris Charles, T.J. Griffin and Craig Bober.

Despite falling behind last week coach Kellar noted, “we did a good job. We scored on back-to-back 2-minute drills and did a lot of good.

“Had a costly turnover. Kids trying to do too much. We’re sitting here 2-2 and we got to protect our home field and try to get one this weekend.”

GSU quarterback Jeff Miller tossed two scores and a pair of picks last week via a 26 of 46 effort that featured 324 yards. Javian Bellamy had 14 receptions for 151 stripes and a score.

Pioneer linebackers Seth Arnold (32) and Sean Bowers (29) lead the team in tackles.

One area of concern for the G-men will be early down execution. WLU is allowing opponents to convert just 23.1% of their third downs, which is good for seventh in the country.

Another aspect which could cause issues is Mother Nature.

“It’s supposed to be really bad,” Kellar added. “I don’t know how either team will handle that weather. It’s going to be part of the game taking care of the football.”

The other facet of the game Kellar is anxious to see play out is the trench battle.

“I think we’ve been playing good,” said the coach, who noted the size of the Cardinals in pregame warmups. “That was the first time this year where I felt someone else controlled the line of scrimmage other than us.

“Even in the loss to Concord I felt like we controlled the line of scrimmage and last week I thought their D-line and O-line played really well against us, not that our kids played bad.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

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