West Liberty University football fans have learned to expect the unexpected whenever the Hilltoppers and Shepherd square off on the gridiron.
The latest installment of their West Virginia Conference rivalry is scheduled for Saturday with a noon kickoff at Ram Stadium in Shepherdstown.
The last three meetings have all been decided in the fourth quarter with the winning team roaring back from a double-digit deficit in the second half.
West Liberty turned the trick in back-to-back seasons, pulling out a 29-28 decision in 2008 after trailing, 28-10, midway through the third quarter, and rallying from a 30-17 fourth-quarter deficit in 2009 to prevail by a 31-30 count.
Shepherd returned the favor last year when the Hilltoppers raced out to a 35-13 lead in the third quarter only to see the Rams come roaring back for a 53-38 victory.
“We’ve had some very intense games with Shepherd over the past few years and it’s grown into a pretty good rivalry,” said WLU head coach Roger Waialae. “This week won’t be any different. They’re coming off a couple of very tough losses so they’ll be fighting to keep their playoff hopes alive. As for us, it’s Shepherd week. That’s all the inspiration we need.”
The two programs and their coaches have spent a considerable amount of time at or near the top of the West Virginia Conference standings over the years.
Shepherd and West Liberty have claimed WVIAC championships in six of the past seven seasons while the two head coaches – Waialae and the Rams’ Monte Cater – are the leaders of the current conference coaching pack. Cater and Waialae have a combined record of 224-110-1 (.670) at their schools compared to a combined 73-98 (.427) mark for the WVIAC’s other six grid bosses.
While the records may not be as lofty as they’ve been in recent seasons, that doesn’t diminish the intensity.
Shepherd (4-2, 2-2) dropped out of the NCAA Division II Top 25 for the first time in more than a year this week after Saturday’s 45-44 overtime loss at West Virginia Wesleyan.
The Hilltoppers (1-5, 1-3), who have battled graduation and injury losses throughout the season, are coming off a much-needed 28-20 win against West Virginia State.
“Now that we have a win under our belts, I think our guys came away with a little better understanding of the effort, passion and intensity it takes to win a football game at this level,” Waialae said. “We’ve been going after them pretty hard the first month of the season so we gave them an extra day off this week. We wanted to give them a chance to recharge the batteries a little bit, both physically and mentally.”
West Liberty set season highs in points (28), rushing yards (116) and total yards (387) in last week’s victory against the Yellowjackets.
Quarterback L.D. Crow completed 25-of-41 passes for 257 yards while TB Brandon Davis rushed for 80 yards on just 15 carries. Seven different receivers had at least one catch of 11 yards or more for the Hilltoppers, who scored 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter for the come-from-behind win.
“We still made some mistakes,” Waialae said, “but the thing I liked about it was that even though we fell behind again, nobody panicked. Everybody stayed the course and did what they were supposed to do. We have good character kids on this team who have seen a lot of adversity this year so I was really happy to see that commitment rewarded with a win.”
Saturday’s game figures to present a much stiffer challenge as West Liberty hits the road against a Ram squad which returns a number of players from last year’s regional championship squad that advanced all the way to the NCAA Division II national semifinals.
The Shepherd offense leads the WVIAC in scoring (46.5 ppg.), total offense (478.5 ypg.) and rushing (220.8 ypg.) while the defense – a traditional strength for the Eastern Panhandle program – leads the nation in rushing defense, yielding a mere 57.3 yards per game.
“It wasn’t just one thing with the West Virginia State win,” Waialae said. “Our offensive line played better, our running backs read their blocks better, our receivers ran better routes and our quarterbacks made better throws. That’s the way our offense works. One thing leads to another and they all feed off each other.
“We still made some mistakes but we had a lot more positive plays. That’s going to be very important this week since we’re going up against one of the best defenses in the country but our guys are looking forward to that challenge.”
GAME NOTES
X Shepherd holds a 30-16 lead in the all-time series, which dates back to 1928, but West Liberty has won two of the last three meetings
X The Hilltopper defense ranks among the Top 10 nationally in fourth-down conversions, allowing only 4 conversions in 18 attempts (22 percent)
X After recording 2 quarterback sacks in last week’s win against W.Va. State, senior DE Isaac Omaits moved up to No. 6 on West Liberty’s career list with 18.5 sacks. Paul Hayes (1996-97) is No. 5 with 19 sacks
X The Hilltoppers are 23-1 (.958) under Roger Waialae when holding their opponents to 20 points or less
X Shepherd is 134-14 (.905) under Monte Cater when scoring 24 points or more
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