Football | 9/14/2017 11:53:00 PM

Box Score     WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – Defense was the name of the game for West Liberty Thursday night as the Hilltoppers outlasted Charleston, 9-6, in a defensive struggle that went down to the wire at West Family Stadium.
    Coach Roger Waialae's Hilltoppers (2-1, 2-1) carried a 9-3 lead into the locker room at halftime and held the Golden Eagles (1-2, 1-2) to a mere field goal over the final 30 minutes to notch their second straight win over the Capital City crew.
    Charleston came into Thursday's game ranked among the top five rushing teams in the nation at 322 yards per game but an aroused West Liberty defense limited the high-powered Golden Eagles to just 117 rushing yards on 49 attempts – an average of little more than 2 yards a carry.
    "I've always been an offensive-minded coach," Waialae said, "but when I saw the way our defense was flying around tonight, I decided to slow down the tempo – something we hardly ever do – and play a conservative field position game.
    "That goes against my better judgement and my whole philosophy. It even goes against the university mindset because this is an offensive-minded hilltop but we were able to beat a really good offensive football team that can run and throw the ball. That's a credit to our kids."
    In a game dominated by the defenses, the most important drive of the night didn't produce any points but turned out to be the key to victory for the Black and Gold.
    With West Liberty clinging to a 9-6 lead despite failing to pick up a single first down in the third quarter, an exhausted WLU defense forced yet another punt early in the fourth quarter only to see the ball roll dead at the Hilltopper 8 with nearly 11 minutes still to play.
    Suddenly, the West Liberty offense started to click. Senior TB Charles Westbrook got the bulk of the carries but QB Brenton Colabella hit three clutch passes to move the sticks and keep the drive alive.
    The Hilltoppers finally ran out of gas at the Charleston 15 and a 32-yard field goal try twisted wide right but the WLU offense had scrubbed more than 7 minutes off the clock, gave the defense a much-needed breather and left UC 80 yards away from the end zone with 3:45 to play.
    "That long drive coming when it did was tremendous for the defense," sophomore safety Logan Deri said. "It gave us a chance to get our legs back under us and time to talk with our coaches about what we wanted to do when we went back out on the field."
    Charleston made things interesting, hitting a couple of big pass plays on third down to drive deep into West Liberty territory. A big sack by senior DE Mohammed Sankoh at the UC 17 forced the Golden Eagles to call a timeout with 5.5 seconds remaining and try for a field goal that would send the game into overtime. Dylan Miles had the distance on his 34-yard attempt but the ball sailed wide right, preserving the 9-6 win for the Black and Gold.
    West Liberty drew first blood when Colabella found a wide-open TE Marcus Malara over the middle for a 14-yard touchdown, capping an 8-play, 64-yard drive with 4:26 left in the first quarter.
    After Miles missed a 39-yard field goal try early in the second quarter, Deri set up another Hilltopper score when he recovered a fumble forced by senior DT Sean Fuimaono at the UC 12. Three snaps later, Christian Morris banged a 31-yard field goal through the pipes for a 9-0 West Liberty lead.
    Miles hit a 33-yard field goal on the final play of the half to make it 9-3 West Liberty at intermission and tacked on a 35-yarder with 1:29 left in the third quarter to conclude the scoring.
    Deri, the 2016 MEC Defensive Freshman of the Year, was a force to be reckoned with throughout the night with 5 tackles, 1.5 tackles-for-loss and an interception to go along with his clutch fumble recovery. The sophomore standout said he and his teammates had something to prove after last week's 34-0 loss at West Virginia Wesleyan.
    "We knew we were a better football team than we showed at Wesleyan," Deri said. "We had a great week of practice and were committed to going out and doing everything we could to come away with a win tonight."
    Colabella completed 17-of-24 passes for 178 yards and a touchdown with WRs Osman Kargbo and Mike McLean combining for 10 catches and 119 yards. Charleston QB Mason Olszewski, who had rushed for 258 yards and thrown for 246 more in UC's first two games, was held to just 1 rushing yard on 10 carries while completing 12-of-18 passes for 139 yards with one interception.
    West Liberty hits the road on Sept. 23 when they head south for a 1:30 p.m. kickoff at UVa-Wise.
  Charleston                                   0  3  3  0 – 6
West Liberty                                 6  3  0  0 – 9      WLU: Malara 14 pass from Colabella (kick failed), 4:26      WLU: FG Morris 31, 10:08
     UC: FG Miles 33, :00      UC: FG Miles 35, 1:29
A: 912      RUSHING: Charleston 49-117; Roberts 19-71; Bry.Hankins 15-29; Kuhns 3-11; Ross 1-5; Olszewski 10-1; T.McAllister 1-0. West Liberty 32-43; Johnson 11-40; Westbrook 7-21; Durbin 1-6; Dorsett 2-1; Ortiz 6-(-2); TEAM 1-(-2); Colabella 4-(-21).
     PASSING: Charleston 18-28-191-0td-1x (Olszewski 12-18-139-0td-1x, Kuhns 5-9-46-0td-0x, Bry.Hankins 1-1-6-0-0). West Liberty 17-25-178-1td-1x; (Colabella 17-24-178-1td-0x, Farmer 0-1-0-0td-1x).
     RECEIVING: Charleston 18-191; Bryant 4-72; Brooks 4-71; Roberts 4-12; Ross 2-10; Delahoussaey 1-11; Kuhns 1-6; T.McAllister 1-5; Wiernicki 1-4. West Liberty 17-178; Kargbo 6-57; McLean 4-62; Kelly 2-20; Durbin 2-20; Farmer 2-5; Malara 1-14.
     First downs: Charleston 16, West Liberty 15
     Fumbles: Charleston 2-1, West Liberty 2-0
     Penalties: Charleston 7-60, West Liberty 2-15
     Time of Possession: Charleston 30:29, West Liberty 29:31