Football | 9/18/2019 10:00:00 AM

    WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University football team heads to Maryland on Thursday for its first-ever Mountain East Conference encounter with Frostburg State. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Bobcat Stadium.
    The good news for the Hilltoppers (1-1, 1-1) is that head coach Roger Waialae isn't flying totally blind going up against a new opponent since he has a couple of game tapes showing Frostburg State (1-1, 1-1) in action. The bad news is that those tapes showed a pretty good football team.
    Now in their first year of transitioning from NCAA Division III to NCAA Division II status, the Bobcats were a force to be reckoned with in the D3 ranks. Frostburg State joined the MEC this year after reeling off three consecutive seasons of 10 or more wins and earning back-to-back NCAA Division III playoff bids.
    After dropping a tough 20-17 decision to West Virginia State in their season opener, FSU rebounded on Saturday with a 52-14 blowout win at Concord. The margin of victory in just their second game as an NCAA Division II squad may have surprised some MEC followers but Waialae wasn't one of them.
    "Winning is an attitude," Waialae said, "and that's obviously something they brought with them when they came on board. They're extremely well coached and they're also a little different than most of the teams in our league. They really try to shorten the game, getting deep into the play clock on every snap and relying pretty heavily on a power run game with some speed option. They don't take a lot of chances; at least they haven't in the first couple of games. They do what they do and they do it very well."
    The Hilltoppers are looking to rebound from last week's 43-24 loss to nationally-ranked Notre Dame (Ohio).
    After some early struggles put WLU in a 22-3 hole, the Black and Gold found its footing. West Liberty battled back to make it a one-score game, 22-17, heading into the fourth quarter before the Falcons were able to pull away down the stretch.
    "We missed some opportunities to put points on the board in the early part of the game and that came back to bite us," Waialae said. "You can't make mistakes like that against a team the caliber of Notre Dame. I was proud of the way my guys shook it off and fought their way back into the game but (Notre Dame's) offense was on the field so long, we just wore down at the end."
    There were several bright spots for the Hilltoppers in the loss.
    Offensively, QB Zach Phillips passed for 182 yards and 2 TDs while adding 35 more yards on the ground. Junior WR Isaiah Robinson had a game-high 82 yards and a TD on 6 catches while TE Thomas Cole caught his fourth TD pass of the year.
    On the other side of the ball, senior safety Logan Deri had a career game with 15 tackles, 3.0 tackles-for-loss, 2.0 quarterback sacks, an interception and a forced fumble. Junior LB Clay McDonald had a career-high 11 stops and senior DB Josh Ojo added 8 tackles, a tackle-for-loss and two pass break-ups against the high-powered Falcon attack.
    That defense will be put to the test on Thursday by an FSU offense led by junior TB Gavin Lavat and graduate senior transfer QB Will Brunson.
    The 6-0, 225-pound Lavat ran for 141 yards and 3 TDs at Concord last week. He's averaging 6.2 yards per carry and 120 rushing yards a game this season. Brunson, a former starter at FCS Albany (N.Y.), has completed nearly 64 percent of his passes to date for 419 yards and 3 TDs with just two interceptions.
    But defense and special teams are where the Bobcats make their biggest impression. They were charted with 11 tackles-for-loss, 5 quarterback sacks, 2 forced fumbles and had a 61-yard interception return TD at Concord on Saturday along with blocking a punt and a field goal attempt.
    "From what we've seen on tape, this is the most fundamentally sound team we've played in a long time," Waialae said. "We're going to have to go over there and beat them. They're not going to beat themselves."
    This is the second of three consecutive Thursday night games for the Black and Gold. They return home next week to host Glenville State under the lights at West Family Stadium.