Football | 11/2/2017 11:34:00 PM

    WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University football team got off to a fast start against No. 21 Eastern New Mexico Thursday night but couldn't hold off the high-powered Greyhounds in dropping a 45-24 decision.
    Eastern New Mexico (8-1) ran for a West Family Stadium record 454 rushing yards on 64 carries but still needed a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns to put the game on ice against Coach Roger Waialae's Hilltoppers (3-7).
    The Greyhounds and their run-heavy triple-option attack brought the nation's No. 2 rushing offense east of the Mississippi River for the first time in program history but struggled to move the ball on the ground in the early going against the West Liberty defense.
    Eastern New Mexico opened the scoring with a 54-yard TD pass from QB Wyatt Strand to WR Russell Montoya but the rest of the first quarter belonged to the Hilltoppers.
    West Liberty cut the gap to 7-3 on a 23-yard Chris Morris field goal and carried a 10-7 lead into the second quarter after QB Lukas O'Connor found WR Osman Kargbo with a 41-yard TD toss at 1:07 of the first quarter.
    The Hilltoppers' Cordell Felder forced a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and Peterson Apollon recovered, giving WLU the ball at the ENMU 25.
    West Liberty couldn't capitalize, turning the ball over on downs at the 20 after back-to-back incompletions.
    The Greyhounds' Johnny Smith capped a 10-play, 80-yard march – all of the yardage coming on the ground – with a 17-yard TD run for a 14-10 Eastern New Mexico lead.
    The WLU offense went 3-and-out but the defense got the ball right back when DB Logan Deri picked off a Strand pass at the Hilltopper 27 and returned it all the way to the ENMU 39.
    Once more the Greyhound defense came up big, picking up a sack and recovering a fumble on third-and-9 to send the hosts away empty-handed again. With its running game now in high gear, Eastern New Mexico turned that fumble into another touchdown for a 21-10 halftime lead.
    "Coming away with no points off those two turnovers really stands out," Waialae said. "If we take advantage of those opportunities, this could have been a much different story."
    After being held to 9 rushing yards in the first quarter, the Greyhounds racked up 240 rushing yards in the second quarter and kept right on rolling when play resumed. A 55-yard TD sprint from Smith and a 46-yard Bailey Hale field goal swelled the lead to 31-10 midway through the third quarter but WLU kept battling back.
    O'Connor capped a 63-yard, 5-play drive by standing up to heavy pressure long enough to launch a 25-yard TD pass to Ridge Durbin, trimming the margin to 31-17 heading into the fourth quarter.
    After Strand opened the final quarter with a twisting 39-yard touchdown run, West Liberty kept its upset hopes alive with a 3-yard TD burst from Savion Johnson to pull within 38-24 with 6:49 remaining but ENMU tacked on an insurance tally with just over 2 minutes remaining to put the game out of reach.
    "That's a very good football team on both sides of the ball," Waialae said. "We missed some opportunities but all in all played pretty well against a nationally-ranked team on a short week of preparation. Their defense was No. 5 in the nation against the run but we ran the ball well enough to hit some play action stuff in the pass game. We didn't get the result we wanted in the end but I'm proud of the effort."
    Jeremiah Ortiz ran for 85 yards on 20 carries and Johnson added 44 more yards on 13 attempts to pace the WLU ground game. O'Connor completed 13-of-33 passes for 178 yards and 2 TDs with no interceptions while Kargbo was the game's leading receiver with 56 yards on 3 catches.
    Ty Holmes had a game-high 12 tackles to lead the defense while Terrance Baldwin and Cliff Clark each finished with 10 stops. Cody Rine had a huge game in the middle of the defensive line with 9 tackles, 2.5 tackles-for-loss and a sack.
    Smith and Strand each topped the 100-yard rushing mark for ENMU with 173 and 113 yards, respectively. Strand completed 2-of-6 passes for 75 yards and a score.
    The Hilltoppers close out the 2017 season on the road next week with another Thursday night kickoff at Fairmont State.
    Eastern New Mexico              7  14  10  14 – 45
West Liberty                        10    0    7    7 – 24      ENMU: Montoya 54 pass from Strand (Hale kick), 13:23
     WLU: FG Morris 23, 7:52
     WLU: Kargbo 41 pass from O'Connor (Morris kick), 1:07      ENMU: Smith 17 run (Hale kick), 10:49
     ENMU: Strand 1 run (Hale kick), 4:29      ENMU: Smith 55 run (Hale kick), 12:23
     ENMU: FG Hale 46, 6:03
     WLU: Durbin 25 pass from O'Connor (Morris kick), 3:44      ENMU: Strand 39 run (Hale kick), 14:46
     WLU: Johnson 3 run (Morris kick), 6:49
     ENMU: Smith 18 run (Hale kick), 2:22
A: 526      RUSHING: E. New Mexico 64-454; Smith 9-173; Strand 14-113; Cass 23-90; Tucker 6-36; Gary 6-23; Terry 6-19. West Liberty 37-116; Ortiz 20-85; Johnson 13-44; O'Connor 4-(-13)
     PASSING: E. New Mexico 2-6-75-1td-1x (all by Strand). West Liberty 13-33-178-2td-0x (all by O'Connor)
     RECEIVING: E. New Mexico 2-75; Montoya 1-54; Lofton 1-21. West Liberty 13-178; Kargbo 3-56; Jenkins 3-18; Durbin 2-45; Jones 2-16; Mayo 1-28; Hardesty 1-10; McLean 1-5.
     First downs: E. New Mexico 24, West Liberty 19
     Fumbles: E. New Mexico 2-1, West Liberty 1-1
     Penalties: E. New Mexico 14-145, West Liberty 4-30
     Time of Possession: E. New Mexico 33:24, West Liberty 26:36