CARROLLTON, Ga. - The West Georgia Wolves were victorious in their first home game in over a month, defeating the West Alabama Tigers by a 24-6 final on Saturday evening at Ra-Lin Field.
The defense stole the show, holding West Alabama to under three yards per play, forcing four takeaways and scoring a defensive touchdown in the win that improved UWG to 3-2 overall and 2-1 in Gulf South Conference play.
"Our defense stepped up to the challenge and played very well, and it was a frustrating night offensively," said head coach David Dean after the win, "We did some things early in the game and had plenty of opportunities that our defense gave us to put early points on the board, but we just made too many mistakes.
West Georgia's offense was very efficient in its opening drive, going 75 yards in seven plays, and scoring on a 38-yard pass from Cameron Brown to Wesley Kennedy III to go up 7-0 before the defense touched the field.
It wasn't until early in the second quarter that West Alabama got on the board, taking advantage of the first of two turnovers, converting a short field into points with a 35-yard Elijah Guyton field goal. West Georgia's next possession was another turnover and once again the defense held UWA to a field goal as Guyton added three points on a 45-yarder.
West Georgia failed to find the end zone after a Jordan Clark interception, but Brock Pellegrino made it a 10-6 West Georgia lead with a 20-yard field goal with just six second left in the half.
Both teams struggled to get anything going in the second half, and Keondre Williams gave the Wolves the spark they needed with a 55-yard scoop and score, to make it a 17-6 lead with 2:30 left in the third.
"That play was huge because that put us up two scores," Dean said of Williams first career defensive touchdown. "It got a lot of momentum for us and our guys offensively were able to relax and take some pressure off themselves."
Although the Wolves didn't need more points thanks to the stifling defensive effort, the UWG offense added a late touchdown as Cameron Brown ran it in from the two-yard line to make it a 24-6 game with 5:28 remaining in the game.
In addition to Clark's pick and Williams' scoop and score, Demetrice Lofton grabbed a fumble recovery and Jerry Mays recovered a fumble on special teams.
The trio of Jalen Lee, Xavier Robinson, and Amos Dahn led UWG's defensive efforts with five tackles.
The Wolves only threw for 113 yards on the night with Terrill Cole, LaPerion Perry and Kennedy accounting for 80 of those combined. Perry and Cole zeroed in on career receiving milestones as Cole now needs just 15 yards to become the seventh player in program history to eclipse the 1,500 yard marker while Perry needs 20 yards to hit the 1,000 career yard mark. Rajaez Mosley, who leads the GSC in yards per rush finished the game with a team-high 39 yards on eight carries (4.9 YPC).
West Georgia remains home next Saturday for the second of three consecutive games at Ra-Lin Field. The Wolves host Chowan in GSC action next Saturday, October 14 at 6 p.m.
