WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Family Stadium lights will come on for the final time this season Thursday night as West Liberty hosts Glenville State in the Hilltoppers' last home game of the year.
West Liberty will observe Senior Night with Coach
Roger Waialae and his staff honoring 13 seniors in a pre-game ceremony.
"This is one of our smaller senior classes," Waialae said, "but most of these guys have been here four or five years and provided a lot of leadership for our program. They've made great contributions to the program on and off the field. The biggest thing for me is that every one of them is on schedule to graduate and half of them will be graduating next month. As a program, we've been very successful graduating our seniors. As a coach, that's what college football is all about."
Unfortunately, not all of the seniors will be able to play in their final home game as the injury-riddled Hilltoppers (4-5, 4-4) limp into Thursday night after losing several more starters in Saturday's 44-10 loss at No. 6-ranked Shepherd.
"Jon McCullough had started every game the last four years but broke his leg at Shepherd," Waialae said. "(True freshman OL)
Ezekiel May had started the last couple of games but went down last week along with (junior WR) Teddy Mayo. Injuries are part of football and we've been moving a lot of kids around to fill in the gaps but it still hurts to see these guys having to sit out when you know how hard they worked to get on the field."
The Pioneers (6-3, 5-3) moved into third place in the MEC on Saturday with a 30-25 victory against defending conference champion Concord. Glenville leads the MEC in total offense at just under 500 yards per game and features some of the top offensive weapons in the region.
Senior TB Rahmann Lee is just 69 yards away from posting his fourth consecutive 1,000-yard rushing season while the other half of the Pioneers' tailback tandem, senior Tevin Drake, has rushed for an MEC-high 1,021 yards already this season. They're averaging better than 6.3 yards a carry between them.
Quarterbacks Sean Steele and Dante Roberts have Glenville near the top of the passing charts, as well, completing 199-of-356 passes for 2,525 yards and 20 TDs with just 7 interceptions. WRs Dante Absher and Ralph Gordon have combined for 1,433 receiving yards and 11 TDs.
The GSC defense also ranks near the top of the conference charts. The Pioneers lead the MEC and rank among the top 10 NCAA Division II teams nationally with 30 quarterback sacks.
"Obviously their skill position players are outstanding," Waialae said, "but the thing that jumps out to me is the experience on that team. All five starters on the offensive line are seniors and there are a lot of seniors on the defensive side of the ball, as well. They're a very good football team."
Due to injury, Waialae has had to reshuffle his offensive line to the point that none of this week's five starters were starting at the same position a week ago. At least two will be making their first collegiate starts. That could be a key as WLU had been putting up some impressive offensive numbers behind junior QB
Dakota Conwell.
Goodwin leads the MEC and ranks No. 6 nationally with 11 TD catches while he closes in on what would be only the 11th 1,000-yard receiving season in school history. After a slow start due to injury, sophomore WR
Anton McCallum has stepped up with several 100-yard receiving games and 6 TD grabs. Conwell has missed playing time with his own injury issues but still averages more than 240 yards a game through the air while directing a WLU offense that leads the league with 23 TD passes.
"We have the capability," Waialae said, "and it's not just Dakota, Daree and Anton. We need some other guys to step up. Guys like (WRs)
Ian Kelly and
Micah Lowe, who have made plays for us. (WR)
Dominique Harris has done some good things.
Jeremiah Ortiz and our other running backs have come up big for us.
"It all starts up front for us. If we can pass protect and get a hat on a hat in the running game, we've shown the ability to put a lot of points on the board. If we're missing assignments and letting their guys run around free, there isn't an offense in the country that can overcome that."
