WKU Football: Hilltoppers Again Can’t Hold Onto Late Lead, ODU Wins 37–3

It took three field goal attempts, two untimed plays at the end of regulation and a wild missed field goal return by ODU (coupled with a…

It took three field goal attempts, two untimed plays at the end of regulation and a wild missed field goal return by ODU (coupled with a WKU penalty) to end a crazy game, but the Hilltoppers saw another late lead slip through their fingers in a 37–34 loss to Old Dominion in front of 13,269 in the Hilltopper program’s 1000th game.

The Hilltoppers, tied at 34–34, attempted to move the ball down the field with tempo and were gunning for a hook and ladder, but the pass fell incomplete near midfield. However, a penalty against ODU led to not only 15 yards to move the Tops on the edge of field goal range, but gave the Tops an untimed down.

The field goal attempt ended up being no good, but ODU was caught with 12 men on the field, so a five-yard bump up and another untimed play was allotted, leading to another missed field goal that was returned by ODU’s Isaiah Harper and, thanks to a face-mask penalty, ODU gets extra field position and an untimed down to kick the game winning field goal.

After forcing ODU to punt on the first series of the game, the Hilltoppers responded with a scoring drive to take the game’s first lead on a Davis Shanley shovel pass to Mik’Quan Deane to make it 7–0, Tops.

ODU quickly answered with a successful scramble by Blake LaRussa for 20 yards, followed by a beautiful play action pass for 27 yards all the way to the WKU one yard line. Kesean Strong finished off the series with a one yard run, tying the game at 7–7.

WKU ensued by driving inside the ODU redzone but failed to convert on a 4th and 2, turning the ball over and leading to ODU capitalizing to take a 14–7 lead.

WKU tied the game early in the second quarter, when Shanley used his wide receivers decisively and finishg the drive with a Shanley pass to Deane to the four yard line and an Appleberry touchdown.

The Tops and Monarchs swapped field goals before ODU’s Lala Davis fumbled and WKU recovered.

Davis Shanley and Mik’Quan Deane put in the work during the drive again and a conversion by Gino Appleberry on 3rd & 2 help lead to a Kyle Fourtenbary 15 touchdown reception from Shanley to put the Tops ahead for the second time of the night.

The Tops and Monarchs struggled for offense in the second half, with the Tops settling for just one field goal and the Monarchs getting a safety due to a holding penalty in the end zone.

The fourth quarter proved to hold most of the fireworks. ODU tied the game at 27–27 with a touchdown run from Kesean Strong and a two-point conversion on a busted play that, of course, turned into a conversion.

However, the Tops answered nicely, driving the ball all the way down to the ODU two where Gino Appleberry capped it off with a touchdown to put WKU up 34–27.

ODU then proceeded to put together an eight play, 79-yard touchdown drive to tie the game (thanks to a questionable pass interference call that came late). LaRussa found Travis Fulgham for the six-yard touchdown to tie the game at 34–34.

This was a game that had many levels of feeling to it. It went from “maybe this season can be salvaged into something” into just a comedy of errors as the game ended the way it ended.

There were some bright spots, however.

Shanley looked good and incredibly poised (more often than not) and threw for 257 yards on 24-of-31 passing.

Both Joshua Samuel and Gino Appleberry were impressive, with Samuel going 87 yards on 15 touches and Appleberry gaining 80 yards on 18 touches and two touchdowns.

As a team, the Hilltoppers logged 464 yards while surrendering 508 as the defense continues to show they’re the weak spot, not strong suit like we were told all preseason, of this campaign.

There’s a lot to say about tonight that’ll be covered in the days, and even weeks, to come, but that’ll do it tonight.

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