WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University football team will be racking up some "frequent rider" miles this weekend when the Black and Gold make the lengthy drive south to Concord in the longest road trip of the season.
    Kickoff for what will be Concord's Homecoming Game has been set for 1 p.m. on the artificial turf at 5,000-seat Callaghan Stadium.
    Coach Roger Waialae's Hilltoppers (3-2, 3-1) have won two straight and are coming off a 20-19 victory against Glenville State last week that moved WLU up into a tie for second place in the Mountain East Conference standings. The Mountain Lions (1-3, 1-3) dropped a 31-27 decision at Fairmont State last week when the Falcons hit a game-winning TD pass with less than two minutes to play.
    The West Liberty defense hasn't allowed a single point on the road this season, posting back-to-back shutouts against Alderson Broaddus (24-0) and West Virginia Wesleyan (31-0), but figures to be sorely tested by a high-powered Concord passing attack that ranks No. 3 nationally under head coach Dave Walker, now in his first full year with the Mountain Lions after a stellar high school coaching career.
    "Concord is a scary football team on tape," Waialae said. "Their quarterback (Jack Mangel) is playing as well as anybody with the numbers he's putting up and with skill guys like (WRs Tywan) Pearce and  (Jarod) Bowie they can score from anywhere on the field. We have to get pressure on their quarterback and take him out of his comfort zone. A big part of our success so far has been our ability to create pocket pressure without blitzing. If we're able to do that Saturday, it will be a big boost for us."
    Avoiding mistakes and establishing consistency are the watchwords on offense for West Liberty this week. The Hilltoppers scored all 20 of their points against Glenville in the first half but failed to dent the scoreboard over the final two quarters. One big reason was an inability to extend drives as the Black and Gold were just 2-for-12 on third-down conversions on the day – 0-for-7 after halftime.
    "We are going to have to play better up front than we did in the second half last week," Waialae said, "but a big part of our third-down issues came from putting ourselves behind the sticks with penalties. False starts hadn't been an issue for us all year and then we had five of them on Saturday."
    With the offense struggling in the second half, the WLU defense came up big. The Hilltoppers held Glenville to three field goals in the third quarter and then ended the game with a turnover on downs and a strip-sack fumble to preserve West Liberty's first one-point win since the 2015 season opener.
              "In order to be a good football team, winning has to be an attitude and I think we're learning that lesson," Waialae said. "We made a lot of mistakes on offense in the second half but with good teams, sometimes one side of the ball can pick up the slack for the other side and find a way to win. We have another opportunity this week and we'll need to perform at a high level on both sides of the ball to come away with a win."