ABILENE, Texas – The University of West Georgia football team fell on the road in United Athletic Conference play on Halloween, dropping a 59-0 decision to the 24th-ranked Abilene Christian Wildcats.
On a day where not much went right for West Georgia (1-8, 0-4 UAC), the Wolves had five turnovers, resulting in 31 points for Abilene Christian (5-4, 4-0 UAC).
The Wolves had just 165 yards of offense while ACU had 499 in a win on their Homecoming.
Both teams were forced to punt after three and outs on their opening drives and ACU picked off a FitzGerald pass on the Wolves' second drive. The Wildcats took advantage and drew first blood, capping off am eight-play, 72-yard drive with a 26-yard pass to Cristian Driver.
On the next ACU drive, the Wildcats drove 77 yards in six plays and scored on a Rovaughn Banks Jr. touchdown rush from the five yard line to go up 14-0 with 3:15 left in the first.
Abilene Christian scored once more before the end of the quarter, with Tucker Parks connecting with Driver for a second time on a 41-yard score.
West Georgia got the offense moving a little better on their first drive of the second quarter, driving inside the ACU 25-yard line. Eventually, ACU forced another turnover on a strip sack of FitzGerald and recovered the ball at their own 31.
On the resulting possession, ACU punched it again on the legs of their quarterback, extending the lead to 28-0, which is how the teams would go into halftime.
The UWG defense got a turnover on ACU's first drive of the second half as Sean Ferguson picked off Parks to give the Wolves the ball back at their own five, but the Wolves would not be able to capitalize, eventually punting the ball back to ACU.
Neither team got much going in the third quarter until late in the period when ACU stretched it to a 35-0 advantage on a five-yard Alex Broome touchdown run with 1:52 left in the third.
ACU added the first of their fourth quarter touchdowns at the 11:04 mark as Jayden York took a shovel pass 30 yards to paydirt to extend it to 42-0. The Wildcats' Deonte Dean raced 53 yards for the final touchdown of the game at the 6:06 mark. After a fumble on the Wolves' ensuing possession, ACU added a 29-yard Brandon Perez field goal to go up 52-0 and then scored once more on the ground with 30 seconds left to account for the final score.
West Georgia's defense was led by Chidu Bekee who had nine tackles.
The Wolves remain on the road next week, traveling to Conway, Arkansas for a November 7 contest against Central Arkansas. Kickoff for that game on "The Stripes" is set for 5 p.m. ET.
NOTABLE NUMBERS
- Ferguson's third quarter interception was the first of his career and the first pick by a Wolf since the Fort Valley State win on September 26.
- Freshman Christian Monfort rushed 11 times for a career-high 61 yards to lead the UWG rushing attack.
- Bekee's nine tackles gives him 40 tackles through four UAC games which leads the conference.
- The loss was the largest margin of defeat in UWG history. It also marked the first time in program history that UWG has been shutout twice in a season.
