Football | 10/14/2017 6:30:00 PM

Box Score

    WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – Glenville State crashed West Liberty's Homecoming party with a come-from-behind 17-13 victory Saturday afternoon at West Family Stadium.
    "The bottom line is you have to make plays to win football games," Hilltopper head coach Roger Waialae said. "We had a lot of opportunities but they made one more play than we did down the stretch and that was the difference."
    West Liberty (2-5, 2-5) had snapped a 10-10 tie with a 24-yard Christian Morris field goal on the first snap of the fourth quarter to take a 13-10 lead but the Pioneers (3-4, 2-4) never stopped pushing.
    Glenville drove deep into Hilltopper territory on the ensuing possession only to see a potential game-tying field goal from 39 yards out clang off the right upright, preserving WLU's three-point advantage.
    The Pioneers got the ball back at their own 35 following a West Liberty punt. After two running plays and a personal foul against the Hilltoppers put the ball on the WLU 37, Glenville QB Jaylen McNair rolled to his right and lobbed a rainbow to WR Javon Butler for the go-ahead score with 7:24 to play.
    West Liberty responded with another long drive but came away empty-handed. On 3^rd-and-8 from the Pioneer 24, senior TB Jeremiah Ortiz was tumbled out of bounds at the 21. Flags flew after a brief scuffle and WLU was hit with a dead-ball personal foul penalty, giving the hosts a 4^th-and-20 from the 36 instead of 4^th-and-5 from the 21.
    The fourth-down pass fell incomplete and even though the defense forced another Glenville punt, the Hilltoppers couldn't move the sticks again and the Pioneers prevailed.
    "It (the personal foul penalty) was probably a good call," Waialae said. "They told me it was somebody on the sidelines who was not in uniform and that's unfortunate. I don't know who it was but I'm responsible for everyone on that sideline so I'll watch the tape and deal with it."
    Both teams struggled to finish drives in the early going. The Hilltoppers got into Glenville territory on each of their first three possessions but turned the ball over on downs twice and lost another on an end zone interception. The WLU defense stopped one Glenville drive on downs at the West Liberty 24 and forced another punt from the Hilltopper 35.
    The Pioneers finally broke the scoring ice when McNair capped a 10-play, 60-yard drive with a 2-yard TD toss to Kentre Grier for a 7-0 lead at 10:17 of the second quarter.
    The Hilltoppers tied the game at 7-7 when QB Brenton Colabella flipped a 1-yard shovel pass to HB Ian Kelly with just 39 seconds left in the opening half. The Pioneers kicked a 44-yard field goal as time expired to go up 10-7 at the break.
    Morris tied the game at 10-10 with a 24-yard field goal at 7:45 of the third quarter as the WLU defense held Glenville without a first down for the entire frame. A 44-yard pass from senior QB Jake Kalama – one of three quarterbacks used by WLU – to freshman WR Isaiah Robinson set up Morris's go-ahead boot at the start of the fourth quarter.
    "Our defense has played pretty well all year," Waialae said, "but we're putting too much pressure on them because our offense has been so sporadic. We're trying some different things, looking for a spark, but we have to do a better job of avoiding negative plays and getting behind the sticks."
    West Liberty's quarterback trio completed 26-of-41 passes for 253 yards and a TD with 2 interceptions. Kelly led all receivers with a career-high 12 catches for 87 yards while Robinson finished with 2 grabs for 74 stripes. Ortiz was the game's leading rusher with 72 yards on 25 carries. Cliff Clark led the WLU defense with 12 tackles, including 1.5 tackles-for-loss, while Logan Deri added 10 stops and 2.0 TFLs.
    Ortiz, who hails from Rochester, N.Y., was crowned Homecoming King during halftime ceremonies while Desi VanCuren of Laurelville, Ohio was Homecoming Queen.
    West Liberty goes back on the road Saturday for a 1 p.m. kickoff at West Virginia State.
    Glenville State                          0  10  0  7 – 17
West Liberty                             0    7  3  3 – 13      GSC: Grier 3 pass from McNair (Flores kick), 10:17
     WLU: Kelly 1 pass from Colabella (Morris kick), :39
     GSC: FG Flores 44, :00      WLU: FG Morris 29, 7:45      WLU: FG Morris 24, 14:56
     GSC: Butler 37 pass from McNair (Flores kick), 7:24
A: 1,126      RUSHING: Glenville State 37-132; Boles 9-65; Gibson 13-50; McNair 5-14; Smith 1-3; Ratliff 8-3; TEAM 1-(-3). West Liberty 34-84; Ortiz 25-72; Gamble 3-9; Colabella 1-6; Kalama 2-6; Kargbo 1-0; Kelly 1-(-2); O'Connor 1-(-7)
     PASSING: Glenville State 19-31-183-2td-0x (all by McNair). West Liberty 26-41-253-1td-2x (Colabella 18-30-158-1td-1x; O'Connor 7-10-51-0td-1x; Kalama 1-1-44-0td-0x.
     RECEIVING: Glenville State 19-183; Grier 6-58; Butler 5-63; Ratliff 4-41; Robinson 3-22; Boles 1-(-1). West Liberty 26-253; Kelly 12-87; Kargbo 5-46; Hardesty 5-25; Robinson 2-74; Durbin 2-21; Colabella 1-10.
     First downs: Glenville State 21, West Liberty 20
     Fumbles: Glenville State 0-0, West Liberty 0-0
     Penalties: Glenville State 10-92, West Liberty 10-94
     Time of Possession: Glenville State 28:03, West Liberty 31:57