Carrollton, GA - The West Georgia Wolves took a 28-13 lead at halftime, then held off a second-half surge from Mars Hill Saturday afternoon on Ra-Lin Field at University Stadium to give new head coach Will Hall a victory in his first game at the helm of the program with a 38-26 win.

The Wolves dominated the line of scrimmage on the afternoon, rushing for 392 yards in the game while holding the Lions to just 44 yards on the ground. Senior Brandon Lucas re-introduced himself to the West Georgia faithful with a stellar performance, rushing 17 times for 151 yards on the day. Lucas led a trio of backs who rushed for at least 70 yards in the game, including junior Dallas Dickey, who became the 17th player in school history with 1,000 yards rushing in a career.

"Anytime you can run the ball as effectively as we did today, good things are going to happen," Hall said. "And I can't say enough about the effort that we had on the defensive side of the ball, to give up 1.8 yards per carry on the ground means that you are playing great football."

Mars Hill opened the game with the ball and picked up a big play on the first drive, as quarterback Trent Miller found Dimitri Holmes down the sideline early in the game. Sophomore corner Marcus Sayles forced Holmes out of bounds and the defensive line went to work. The Lions got no closer to the end zone and had to settle for a field goal.

On the ensuing drive, the Wolves came out of the gate carving up chunks of yardage. Dickey rushed for 12 yards on the first play, followed by a 17-yard run from Lane Thompson, then another 13-yard rush from Dickey. Eight plays and 65 yards after the start of the drive, senior Seth Hinsley crashed in from five yards out for the first touchdown of the season, giving the Wolves a 7-3 lead.

That was the final scoring of the first quarter, as the UWG defense took control of the game. West Georgia forced and recovered two fumbles on each of the next three drives, giving the ball back to the offense. The next scoring drive started for West Georgia at the 13:39, and Dickey picked up his first passing touchdown of the season, tossing an 11-yard strike to Chris Terry to give the Wovles a 14-3 lead.

That 11-point lead would stay for a short period of time, as Holmes returned the ensuing kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown to cut the Wolves' lead to 14-10. On the next two possessions, the Wolves were forced to punt, but the defense responded with a Curtis Lindsay interception and a Jamaree James fumble recovery after Gabe Freeman forced the fumble.

Dickey to Terry came back into play after that fumble, as the two hooked up on a 21-yard touchdown pass on the very next play to give the Wolves a 21-10 lead. Mars Hill wouldn't lay down though, marching back down the field and picking up anotherr field goal with 40 seconds left on the clock before halftime.

Where many teams would take an eight-point lead and the ball to start the second half into the locker room, Hall and his offense used the three timeouts that he had left to get to midfield, then Dickey connected with Shaq Hall on a 48-yard hail mary pass as time expired to give the Wolves a 28-13 lead heading into the break.

Halftime was slightly extended due to a short lightning delay, but after the break, the Wolves picked up more points on a 32-yard field goal from Hunter Heck to take a 31-13 lead. The defense rose to the occasion on their first drive, with the line forcing the issue, allowing -1 yards on the first possession of the second half.

The Wolves went on another march, and with Dickey and Co. knocking on the door of the goal line, another piece of adversity arose, as Chris Leamon recovered a fumble at the 12 on a dead sprint and found paydirt, going 88 yards for the score. On the ensuing kickoff, things got a little worse, as a short kick was mishandled, giving the Lions the ball at the Wolves' 20 yard line. Three plays later, the score was 31-26, as Miller found Jeremy Hughes for a 27-yard touchdown. The adversity continued as the Wolves had a 12-play drive that followed that ended with a Heck field goal getting blocked to close out a wild third quarter.

"I'm very proud of the effort that these guys made today in overcoming adversity," said Hall. "With a lot of new players putting on the uniform for the first time together, we went through a period in the third quarter where some teams might have thrown in the towel. But they pulled together and won the day and I'm proud for them."

But the Wolves put the game out of reach on their next drive, marching 74 yards in 10 plays, finishing off with a 39-yard touchdown run from Denarius Appling to make the score 38-26.

The UWG defense allowed just 323 yards of total offense on the afternoon, recovered three fumbles, had two interceptions and had six tackles for loss on the day. Laronji Vason and Jamaree James each had six tackles to lead the defensive effort. Tyrell Adams had five tackles, including two sacks on the afternoon. Five different players forced the five fumbles that Mars Hill had on the afternoon, with Vason, James and Lorenzo Ford each recovering a fumble. Lindsay had an interception in his first game on defense and David Singleton had another interception late that put the game away.

Lucas had 17 carries for 151 yards, followed by Hinsley with 15 rushes for 79 yards and a touchdown. Dickey had 18 carries for 77 yards and Appling four rushes for 71 yards and a score. Alex Macaulay led the way receiving with three catches for 40 yards on the afternoon.