WKU Football: Tops Send Eagles to Margaritaville 28–10
WKU came into Hattiesburg riding “high on the horse” after beating SEC opponent Arkansas, while Southern Miss wasn’t willing to just…
WKU came into Hattiesburg riding “high on the horse” after beating SEC opponent Arkansas, while Southern Miss wasn’t willing to just rollover. However, the WKU Defense held strong only allowing 10 points and scoring defensively with Deangelo Malone’s recovering a huge fumble leading them to their seventh victory of the season.
WKU started their first drive by almost getting a boost from a targeting call (textbook targeting) which was overturned. They then went for a gutsy call on 4th & 1 one, converting it to set up a Jaquez Sloan Touchdown off with a reverse to score to gain an early 7–0 lead in the first quarter.
USM would need a few different series in order to answer back. It was the only “slip up” for the Hilltopper D allowing a 69 yard TD for the Golden Eagles. WKU’s defense would shut down the Eagles for the rest of the first half.
Storey would answer a few series later with a beautiful pass to Pearson for the TD.
Then begins a crazy series of events, it started with a USM punt that hit a WKU punt returner allowing the Eagles to recover near midfield.
This led USM to throw a Touchdown pass to Quez Watkins. However, he wasn’t in the endzone and luckily the ball was stripped and returned by Trae Meadows to the USM 15 and an unsportsmanlike penalty pushes The Hilltoppers to the USM 30-yard line. WKU would capitalize later in the drive with a 21-yard pass to Quin Jernighan for the score. USM would attempt to answer but would be forced to attempt a punt that was wide right.
Entering the second half, USM would drive down the field trying to shorten the WKU lead. USM would be intercepted by Antwon Kincade. But the Hilltoppers weren’t able to capitalize and were forced to punt. The rest of the third quarter would be a back and forth where neither team was able to score.
The WKU defense continued to hold strong into the 4th quarter. The only score of the quarter was from Deangelo Malone who recovered a fumble deep in USM territory. The rest of the quarter was more of the same story. WKU held USM to 10 points. A final onside kick that WKU recovered was the nail in the coffin for the Golden Eagles.
WKU fought hard in this game and kept USM from getting into a rhythm only allowing one big play. Even with USM trying futility to do multiple fake punts to get them back into this, to no avail. Ty Storey continued the exemplary play, without a single questionable throw all night. Gaej Walker almost reached 1000 yards rushing for the season, and the WR core caught almost everything thrown there way. This team played motivated and determined and makes me wish we could have another shot at Marshall or FAU after these past two games.
Here are your final stats from today’s huge victory:
