By aaron Lynch-Kelly
for www,wvsuyellowjackets.com

Saturday's matchup of West Virginia State and third-ranked Shepherd started out looking like fans would be treated to a shootout between two high powered offenses as both teams scored on their opening drives.

Shepherd's C.J. Davis took short pass from backup quarterback Connor Jessup and scurried four yards down the visitor sideline to open the scoring.

West Virginia State's Dionta Brown took the ensuing kickoff 96 yards for the touchdown to answer as all three players would go on to have career days in sunny Institute.

Unfortunately for Yellow Jacket fans last season's national runner-up had just too much fire power as Shepherd went on to win 70-24.

State hung tough with the visitors through the first quarter, trailing just 21-14 when it ended.

Still,the Yellow Jackets would go into the half trailing 49-17.

The second half featured a more disciplined Rams team, who would go on to score three TD's from inside their own five-yard line. The Yellow Jackets would continue to apply pressure on Jessup for the remainder of the game but to no avail as the visitors would ultimately go on to win 70-24, which is the most points their defense had allowed all season long.

The Yellow Jackets were led into battle by quarterback Matt Kinnick who had to knock off early rust from not playing in the last few weeks throwing 12-23 for 154 yards and one ouchdown. Sophomore wide receiver Tyrell Henderson paced the talented receiving corps with tw catches 46 yards. While the show stopping performance on special teams belongs to running back Dionta Brown who ended the day with four returns for 173 yards and one touchdown.

The Yellow Jackets defense was led by Dennis Gardeck who recorded 10 tackles.

Jessup, filling in for injured All-American Jeff Ziemba, completed 22 of 28 passes for 480 yards and five touchdowns. Davis caught nine of those for 251 yards and two scores.

The Yellow Jackets hit the road next week to take on the Glenville State Pioneers. In two weeks the team returns home to face off against the nationally ranked University of North Carolina-Pembroke Braves for an out of conference game.