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West Virginia State University Athletics

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FB22 Riddick
Photo: Todd Griffith
38
Concord CONCORD 6-2 , 5-2
56
Winner West Virginia State WVSU 5-3 , 4-3
Concord CONCORD
6-2 , 5-2
38
Final
56
West Virginia State WVSU
5-3 , 4-3
Winner
Score By Quarters
Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th F
CONCORD Concord 14 17 7 0 38
WVSU West Virginia State 9 10 27 10 56

Game Recap: Football | | James Garcia, Sports Information Director

West Virginia State knocks Concord off the mountain top with 56-38 upset

INSTITUTE, W.Va. – The West Virginia State University football team (5-3, 4-3 MEC) put up 27 points in the third quarter as part of a comeback 56-38 win over Concord (6-2, 5-2 MEC) on Saturday afternoon at Lakin-Ray Field at Dickerson Stadium. The Mountain Lions were tied for first place with Notre Dame College in the Mountain East Conference standings prior to the stinging upset by the Yellow Jackets.

Senior quarterback Donovan Riddick played his best game under center for WVSU to lead his team to a resounding victory. He completed 29-of-41 pass attempts (71 percent) for a career-high 402 yards and a career-high five touchdowns with one pick. Riddick also scrambled for 43 yards and a touchdown to account for 6-of-7 touchdowns scored by State in the contest.

Junior wide receiver Barry Hill went full beast mode with eight catches for a career-best 185 yards and a career-best three touchdowns. His longest reception was 49 yards and he averaged 23.1 yards per catch.    

Freshman wideout Quientin Williams was the second-leading receiver for WVSU with seven catches for 78 yards and a score. He also returned a kickoff 93 yards to the house.

Sophomore kicker Brennen Schmitt went 3-for-3 on field goal attempts and made 5-of-7 point after tries. He also landed all three of his punts inside the 20 yard line.  

The Yellow Jackets received the opening kickoff and scored within two minutes. Riddick found Hill on the fifth play of the opening drive for a 42-yard touchdown. The extra point sailed wide, 6-0.

The Mountain Lions also scored on their first drive of the game and did it in less than a minute. Their fourth play of the drive was a 26-yard touchdown pass, 7-6.

CU scored again in the first quarter with a 12-play, 86-yard drive that took five minutes off the clock. Concord went for it on fourth-and-one from State's 14 yard line and found the end zone with a passing play, 14-6.

WVSU made it all the way down to Concord's one yard line on the next drive, but were held to a field goal, 14-9, just before the end of the opening stanza.

The Mountain Lions started to pull away from State in the second quarter. They scored another touchdown before recovering a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and tacking on another seven points, 28-9.

On the following kickoff, Williams gathered the ball at the seven yard line and faked a reverse to open a path down the sideline for a 93-yard score, 28-16.

A blocked punt later in the second quarter set up a short, 26-yard field for the Mountain Lions. The WVSU defense forced the field goal unit to be brought out after three downs. The 42-yard attempt was successful, 31-16.

The Yellow Jackets took back over with around three minutes remaining in the first half and drove 56 yards down the field to set up a 31-yard field goal with 15 ticks on the clock. Schmitt converted it to close the gap to 12 points, 31-19, before heading to the locker room.

The third quarter was where the tables finally turned for WVSU. Riddick found Hill again for a 30-yard touchdown completion to cut the deficit to five, 31-26. Then Paul Sanchez forced a fumble on the ensuing kickoff that was recovered by State. With a short field to work with, Riddick was eventually able to dump a pass off to running back Tavis McAdoo for a 12-yard score. The point after attempt was blocked to leave the Yellow Jackets with a one-point lead, 32-31.

Concord quickly regained the lead on the following drive with a 55-yard pass completion for a touchdown, 38-32. WVSU responded immediately with a 6-play, 69-yard touchdown drive that ended with another Riddick to Hill connection to put the Yellow Jackets back up by one, 39-38.

After a speedy three-and-out by CU, Riddick found Hill again for a 49-yard strike that resulted in a goal-to-go situation. Riddick then punched the ball over the goal line himself from one yard out to give his team an eight-point cushion, 46-38.

Another three-and-out forced by the WVSU defense set up WVSU for one last touchdown drive that carried over into the opening minute of the fourth quarter. This time, Riddick threw to special teams star Williams for a 24-yard TD, 53-38.

The Yellow Jackets defense prevented Concord from scoring for the rest of the contest. Junior defensive back Juston David intercepted a pass at the beginning of the fourth stanza. Then Corlyn Witcher made a huge stop on fourth-and-goal by tackling the rushing quarterback at the two yard line. Finally, Chris Thompson intercepted the CU quarterback with 2:26 showing on the scoreboard. He set up a 22-yard field goal with approximately 30 seconds left that was converted to give the game its final score, 56-38.

West Virginia State posted a season-high 546 yards of offense. Oddly enough, Concord totaled 552 yards of offense to barely outdo WVSU. CU committed 17 penalties for 139 yards compared to nine penalties committed by the Yellow Jackets for 91 yards.

State will head to Glenville State (4-4, 3-4 MEC) next on Saturday, Oct. 29 for a 1 p.m. kickoff.

 
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