WKU Football: Michigan State Edges Hilltoppers 48–31
Yet another slow start seemed to doom the Hilltoppers, but Bailey Zappe once again proved to be the real deal as WKU made it interesting in East Lansing.
A brisk, autumn night in East Lansing, Michigan capped off a perfect Saturday evening for football. The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers came into Big Ten territory attempting to get their second win of 2021. The Michigan State Spartans were undefeated at 4–0 and were ranked 17th in the country.
WKU received the ball first and the game was underway. After a three & out on offense, John Haggerty was called to punt. Suddenly, a 61-yard punt turned into an 88-yard touchdown return by Jayden Reed. With 13:32 to go in the first quarter, the Spartans were leading 7–0.
After another three & out, the ball was returned for the Spartans offense. Kenneth Walker III reaped the spoils of a touchdown of his own. Under eight minutes, the Tops trailed 14–0 to MSU.
After getting in the red zone on their third possession of the night, the Tops offense was stalled out. Brayden Narveson kicked a 37-yard field goal to make the score 14–3 with 5:04 left in the 1st.
Giving the ball back to the Spartans, they drove down the field once again. Payton Thorne threw a touchdown pass to Jayden Reed. Now with 3:54 left, the Spartans extended the lead to 21–3.
Thankfully in what seemed to be almost out of reach was ceased with a strong retaliation from the Tops. Bailey Zappe led the offense down and concluded with a touchdown pass to Joey Beljan.
The Tops were now down 21–10 at the end of the first quarter.
Opening the second quarter, the Tops offense couldn’t move past the MSU defense for six much-needed points. Narveson returned to the field to complete a 29-yard field goal attempt. At the 11:42 mark, MSU was still in front, 21–13.
Michigan State continued to push through as they drove down the field once again. Walker III rushed for his second touchdown of the night, making the score 28–13 with less than ten minutes in the first half. After eight plays and 58 yards back on offense, Narveson came back to kick another field goal. it was successful from 35 yards out. The score was now 28–16.
Walker III received his third touchdown of the night after a nine-play, 66-yard drive that took four minutes away from the Tops. On the next offensive possession for WKU, the ball was fumbled and recovered by MSU. Throne scored another touchdown for the Spartans with 47 seconds left in the second quarter. Going into halftime, the score was MSU 42, WKU 16.
In the third quarter, the score mostly remained the same. Western’s most effective possession of the quarter ended on a turnover on downs at the 1-yard line of Michigan State. MSU’s Matt Coghlin did kick a field goal to keep the score 45–16 by the end of the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Zappe threw his second touchdown pass of the night to Jerreth Sterns with 13:35 left in the game. The Tops still were trailing 45–24.
After getting the ball back, Zappe threw another touchdown pass to tight end Joey Beljan to trim the deficit to 45–31.
Spartans continued to put away the game with the final score of 48–31. This was the Hilltoppers’ third straight loss of the season.
Notes from the game:
The defense was not good at all. While playing a bigger opponent has some downfalls, giving up 42 points in a half is very frustrating. The rush defense was out of ideas on how to handle a very stout MSU rushing offense. Quite frankly, we were outplayed and it showed.
The offense could have better opportunities to score more points. Being in the red zone four different times with leaving only three points each time was painstakingly miserable. Despite being blown out, they kept going to trim the deficit.
The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers are now 1–3 and have finished their non-conference schedule. They will return to The Houch on Saturday, October 9 to face the University of Texas-San Antonio. This will be the 2021 Conference USA season opener against an undefeated Roadrunners team with a lot of promise. The game will be televised on Stadium with a 6 pm central time kickoff.
Here are the final stats from tonight’s loss in East Lansing:
