RICHMOND, Ky. - The UWG football team came up short in their United Athletic Conference opener on Saturday night, dropping a 30-20 decision to the Eastern Kentucky Colonels at Roy Kidd Stadium.
West Georgia (1-5, 0-1 UAC) had a costly turnover at the one-yard line and EKU (2-4, 1-1 UAC) did enough in the ground game to control time of possession and keep the Wolves' offense off the field.
EKU had the ball for over 39 minutes of the game while UWG had it for just 20:52 and ran 20 less plays than the Colonels. The Wolves had 349 yards of total offense with 270 of those coming through the air while EKU rushed for 196 and threw for 195 to outgain the Wolves with 391 yards total.
The first five drives of the game ended with a punt, and on West Georgia's third drive of the night, they got good field position after a shanked punt and the Wolves capitalized. The Wolves had to go just 35 yards and they did it on six plays, finding the endzone on a six-yard Christian Monfort rushing touchdown.
EKU then answered with an eight-play, 81-yard drive, capping it off with the ground game as Brady Hensley ran it in from 13 yards out to tie the game at 7-7.
On West Georgia's next possession, a huge, 68-yard reception by T.J. Lockley set the Wolves up inside the 10-yard line, and UWG eventually got to the one before a fumbled snap gave the Colonels the ball back at their own 13. EKU drove down and took their first lead of the game, going 87 yards in 12 plays.
UWG got behind the chains and would punt once more in the half, and EKU then drove 82 yards in 12 plays over 3:12 of game time, going up 21-7 with 19 seconds left in the half on a seven-yard pass from Jordyn Potts to Jayden West.
Out of the break, UWG's offense drove into the redzone before having to settle for a field goal. Logan Lopez converted the 38-yard attempt to make it a 21-10 EKU lead with 11:53 on the third quarter clock.
With 2:46 left in the third, Lopez added three more, booting through a 49-yarder to cut the deficit to eight points at 21-13.
Nine seconds into the final quarter, EKU's Devin Orr put the Colonel lead back at 11 with a 30-yard field goal.
West Georgia then cut it to a four-point game as Colton FitzGerald hit DK Daniel for a four-yard touchdown to cap off a seven-play, 75-yard drive and make it 24-20 with 12:09 to play.
EKU then answered with a 38-yard field goal by Orr to stretch it back to a seven-point game at 27-20, giving the Wolves the ball back with 7:07 left in the game.
UWG went three-and-out on their next possession and had to punt it back to EKU and the Colonels did enough to get into field goal range and Orr stretched the EKU lead back to 10 with a 48-yard field goal.
The Wolves got the ball back with 2:11 to play and UWG drove across midfield before turning it over on an interception.
FitzGerald was 18-of-33 passing for 282 yards with one touchdown and the pick. Three receivers had 60-plus yards, led by 86 yards from T.J. Lockley who had most of his yards on the big 68-yard catch. Malik Leverett had four catches for 72 yards while DK Daniel had 62 yards on five catches and the touchdown.
Defensively, Chidu Bekee and Lucas Naquin each had 10 tackle performances to lead the way. Bekee racked up eight solo stops and had two TFLs. Elijah Barnes chipped in with eight tackles while Chancellor Bryant had seven.
The Wolves return home next week to take on a nationally-ranked Austin Peay squad for the Hall of Fame game. Kickoff is slated for 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 17 from University Stadium.
NOTABLE NUMBERS
- Monfort's first quarter rushing touchdown was the third of his career. The last true freshman running back to rush for at least three touchdowns in a season was Christian Royalston who had four in 2018.
- Lopez's 49-yarder was a career-long for the Reston, Virginia native, besting his 46-yard field goal against ETSU. He is now 4-for-4 on the season.
- DK Daniel is now tied with TJ Lockley for the team lead in receiving touchdowns with two. Lockley increased his career totals to over 1,100 receiving yards on 88 receptions.
