The West Liberty University football team steps into the Mountain East Conference spotlight Thursday night when the Hilltoppers travel to Fairmont State for the MEC Game of the Week.

Kickoff is set for 7:10 p.m. at the Falcons' Duvall-Rosier Field.

West Liberty (1-1, 1-0) will be trying to bounce back from Saturday's disappointing 50-27 non-conference loss to McKendree (Ill.) while Fairmont (0-2, 0-2) is coming off a 27-10 setback on the road at No. 22 Concord.

Hilltopper head coach Roger Waialae has an 8-2 record against the Falcons during his time at the WLU helm but has mixed emotions about the short week of preparation.

"Obviously, it negatively impacts the recovery time for our guys who are battling injuries," Waialae said. "On the other hand, after the way we played against McKendree, I think we're all looking forward to getting back out on the field. We need to learn from our mistakes, put that loss behind us and move on."

After struggling through a mistake-prone first half, the Hilltoppers went to the locker room on the short end of a 30-13 score and saw the Bearcats push the margin to 37-13 less than three minutes into the third quarter.

Senior QB Dylan LaGarde, who came on in relief of injured starter Dakota Conwell, sparked a third-quarter comeback with a pair of touchdown passes, cutting the deficit to 37-27, but another drive ended with a fumble inside the McKendree 13 and the rally ran out of gas. The Illinois squad tacked on a pair of insurance scores in the fourth quarter.

"Dakota was banged up pretty good in the Concord game," Waialae said. "If I had it to do over again, I probably wouldn't have played him against McKendree but I let him talk me into it. We'll see how he does in practice this week but I have confidence in Dylan and (Brendan) Colabella's ability to move the team. It will probably be a game-time decision as to who's going to start on Thursday."

LaGarde completed 20-of-35 passes for 209 yards and 3 TDs in relief of Conwell but Colabella, a redshirt freshman, impressed when he came off the bench cold to hit a key fourth-down completion when LaGarde's helmet came off and he was forced to leave the game.

Redshirt freshman WR Ian Kelly finished with 7 catches for 66 yards and two scores while WR Micah Lowe added 6 grabs for 51 yards. TB Braxton Gamble was the Hilltoppers' leading rusher with 76 yards on just 5 carries, highlighted by a 58-yard first-quarter TD sprint.

After all but shutting down the highly-touted Concord attack the week before, the WLU defense struggled to contain McKendree QB Isaac Fisher. The senior signalcaller torched the Hilltopper secondary for 353 passing yards and 6 TDs. He also ran for 110 yards on 17 carries while guiding a Bearcat attack that racked up nearly 600 yards of total offense.

"Their quarterback was very good," Waialae said. "He ran the ball well and he threw it well but he also made great decisions. That being said, we helped them with some blown coverages and missed tackles. Basically, the things we had done well against Concord the week before, we didn't do well against McKendree. We're working on getting that cleaned up before we go to Fairmont."

The once-proud Falcon program has been going through a lean spell over the past few years, posting just 6 wins in their last 23 games, but Coach Jason Woodman's team did some good things in last week's loss to the nationally-ranked Mountain Lions.

The Fairmont State defense held the defending MEC champions to just 308 yards of total offense, Concord's lowest regular-season output in nearly two years, and gave up an average of just 3.2 rushing yards per carry. Sophomore LB Marcus Porter led the defense with 8 stops, including 3 tackles-for-loss, despite sitting out the first half.

While the Falcon offense wasn't able to get much done on the ground – rushing for just 58 yards on 30 carries – but QB Cooper Hibbs completed 19-of-29 passes for 143 yards and a touchdown. WR Fabian Guerra led all receivers with 9 catches for 77 yards and a TD and the offense played turnover-free football for the second straight week.

"This will be a very good test for our character as a football team," Waialae said. "They'll have a big crowd over there and it's going to be a great college football atmosphere. We've had success against them in the past but we're going to have to play well in order to come back home with a win."

GAME NOTES

X Just two weeks into the season, Shepherd (2-0), Glenville State (2-0) and West Liberty (1-0) are the only MEC teams without a loss in league play

X Over the past 10 years, West Liberty has rushed for a total of 1,042 yards in its 8 wins against Fairmont but has a total of just 8 rushing yards in its 2 losses to the Falcons

X This will be the Hilltoppers' fourth night game at Fairmont during the Waialae Era. West Liberty is 3-0 at night in Fairmont

X WLU has surpassed 450 yards of total offense in consecutive games for the first time since closing out the 2010 season with back-to-back 600-yard games

X The Hilltoppers are 38-7 under Waialae when they win the turnover battle but just 14-35 when they have more turnovers than their opponents

X West Liberty's 55 passes in its season-opening win against Concord are the most by a Hilltopper team since throwing 63 passes in a 53-38 loss to Shepherd on Oct. 23, 2010

X The 52 passes against McKendree last week marked the first time WLU has thrown more than 50 passes in consecutive weeks since the 2010 season