After running away to a convincing Homecoming win against Fairmont State last week, the West Liberty University football team heads west, hoping to crash Urbana's Homecoming party this weekend. Kickoff is set for noon Saturday at Urbana Stadium.

The Hilltoppers (3-3, 3-2) scored early and often in their 39-16 rout of Fairmont. QB Dakota Conwell passed for three touchdowns and ran for another as West Liberty bolted out to a 30-0 lead before halftime.

The Black and Gold defense surrendered 413 total yards but came up big in the clutch, sending the Falcons away empty-handed on four of their six trips inside the Hilltopper 20. The WLU stoppers delivered numerous impact plays, including a dozen tackles-for-loss, 3 interceptions and a pair of quarterback sacks.

"You'll never hear me complain about a win," Waialae said. "We gave up a lot of yards between the 20s but we played great red zone defense. When push came to shove, we were able to get stops and keep them off the board.

"I was really encouraged by Dakota's play. When you check out of running plays into 3 touchdown passes, that's not luck. It's one thing for a quarterback to see it but it's another thing for him to know what he's seeing and it's something special when he can process that at the line of scrimmage, get us into the right play and execute it."

Conwell completed 13-of-20 passes for 252 yards – an average of nearly 20 yards per completion – while combining with six other backs to rush for 233 yards on 45 attempts. WR Anton McCallum had 3 catches for a season-high 118 yards while fellow WR Dylan Potts caught a pair of 11-yard TD tosses.

Urbana (1-5, 1-5) has lost five consecutive games after opening with a 24-13 win against UVA-Wise. The Blue Knights have a potent passing attack, averaging nearly 275 yards a game, but have struggled to run the ball consistently. Urbana is the only MEC team averaging fewer than 100 rushing yards per game this fall.

Despite the big passing numbers, the quarterback situation appears to be in flux. True freshman Colby Speice became Urbana's third different starting QB in the last three weeks on Saturday when he completed 13-of-28 passes for 208 yards and a pair of TDs in a 50-20 loss to No. 21-ranked Concord.

"One of the challenges we faced in preparation this week is that Urbana has three quarterbacks and each one runs a different offense," Waialae said. "(Cole) Burdyshaw, who started the season for them but has been battling injuries, is a zone-read guy who can run it or throw it. (Cody) Schroeder, who started against (W.Va.) State and played in all six games, is more of a passer but can also pull it down and take off while Speice is a traditional pocket passer. We have to prepare for all of them."

The Urbana receiving corps could present match-up problems for the Hilltopper secondary with several wideouts standing 6-3 or taller. Waialae says WLU will need to pay special attention to 6-3, 240-pound senior tight end Le'Vell Spivey, who had 6 catches for 125 yards and 2 TDs at Concord last week, and rangy 6-4 junior WR Karim Jones, who leads the Blue Knights with an average of 85 receiving yards a game.

"A lot of what they try to do in the passing game is find a way to get those two guys isolated in 1-on-1 coverage and give them a chance to make a play," Waialae said. "They're pretty good after the catch, as well, so we need to be sure to get them on the ground."

The injury situation appears to be easing somewhat for a Hilltopper team that resembled the walking wounded earlier in the year. Long snapper Korey Lafferre will likely sit out this week after being injured on a tackle against Fairmont. He'll be replaced by H-Back Robert Jones. Strong safety Andrew Faraimo missed last week's game and will be a game-time decision once again along with center Eric Amidei.

"Defensively, Urbana plays a 3-3 stack and they recruit to it so they have a lot of really fast athletes who run to the ball," Waialae said. "On top of that, it's Homecoming and they've won something like 11 of their last 12 Homecoming games. We know they're going to be fired up to play us and we're going over there expecting to get their best shot. We'll need to play well if we're going to come back with a win." 

GAME NOTES

X This is the fifth meeting between the schools with West Liberty holding a 3-1 series lead

X The Hilltoppers' three losses this season have come at the hands of No. 8 Shepherd, No. 21 Concord and NCAA Division I FCS Duquesne. Those three teams enter this weekend with a combined record of 16-2

X West Liberty is 50-6 under Roger Waialae when leading at the half but has just a 9-41 record when tied or trailing at intermission

X Urbana leads the MEC in penalties by a wide margin, having been flagged 65 times for 659 yards, an average of nearly 11 penalties for 110 yards per week

X The Blue Knights set an MEC record with 24 penalties for 219 yards in last season's 32-13 win at West Liberty