Cullowhee, N.C. ? Five different Catamounts reached the end zone ? including three tallying their first scores as Catamounts ? as Western Carolina opened the Dennis Wagner era with a 35-0 shutout victory over the Shorter College Hawks Thursday night at E.J. Whitmire Stadium / Bob Waters Field.
The win snapped a seven-game losing skid which dates back to last season, while also extending Western’s winning streak in home openers to 11-straight.
Wagner becomes the fifth WCU head coach all-time to be victorious in his inaugural game. The shutout victory, Western’s first since blanking Chowan in the opener in 2006 (42-0), also marked the first-time that the Shorter College Hawks ? in the fourth year of NAIA football competition ? had been shutout.
“I’m really proud of our coaching staff, I’m really proud of our players,” said a victorious Wagner during post-game comments. “It all goes back to them and to all the hard work the coaches put in every day to prepare the team, and to the team buying into what we’re doing.”
He added, “It’s early. This is the first game of the year. By no means does this say where we’re going or what we’re doing. But it’s certainly a step in the right direction, and that’s what this football program has to do is start getting their chests back up and their heads back up and believing in themselves.”
Senior quarterback Andy Horn ? who was not only making just his second career start, but also his second-career appearance ? completed a career-best 22-of-33 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns.
“Especially in the first half, the offense was rolling a little bit tonight,” Horn said following his first victory as the starter. “The ?O’ line did a great job up front. There were a couple of plays where I was scanning from left to right, the whole field, and was able to hit that third or fourth guy.”
Horn’s counterparts also got into the mix under center with red-shirt sophomore Adam Hearns and red-shirt freshman Zack Jaynes each seeing a series apiece. Hearns, who found himself all over the field offensively Thursday night, tallied 34 yards on the ground and completed 5-of-6 passes for 34 yards and a scoring strike. Jaynes, in his collegiate debut finished 3-for-4 for 22 yards, having his lone time under center end on a failed fourth-and-long conversion attempt.
Two plays into its first offensive series of the year, Western Carolina found pay-dirt en route to the victory. Horn found red-shirt sophomore Marquel Pittman on a 56-yard strike down the far sideline to set up Hearns, seeing his first snap of the season lined up as a tailback, for the opening score. Hearns scampered off left tackle for a four-yard touchdown and the early, 7-0, lead.
Horn hooked up with Pittman from six yards out to extend the Catamount lead to 14 on their second possession as WCU officially drove 80 yards in 12 plays to go up two scores. In actuality, the offense moved 90 yards after suffering a 10-yard loss on the first play of the drive.
Western’s most impressive drive of the game came late in the second quarter. Leading 14-0, the Catamounts were pinned back inside the shadow of their own goal posts after a holding penalty on a Hawk punt pushed WCU back to the four-yard line. However, 12 plays later, junior transfer Jayson Williams spun his way 24 yards into the end zone for the 21-0 advantage. Williams accounted for 44 yards on the drive.
Williams led all rushers with 90 yards on 14 carries and his first Catamount score.
WCU ended the first half capitalizing in the two-minute offense. Horn orchestrated an eight-play, 72-yard drive that encompassed a minute and a half to give the Catamounts a commanding four-score lead at intermission. On the drive, Horn was 6-for-9 with three pass completions to junior Kyle Garland, one to Pittman and two to senior Donald James, who hauled in a 14-yard TD reception. A converted defensive back two yeas ago, James’ score was the first of his collegiate career.
Pittman led all receivers with 106 yards on six catches, while James pulled in a career-best nine passes for 61 yards and Garland caught five for 51 in the win.
Midway through the fourth, Western capped the game’s scoring as red-shirt freshman Josh Cockrell corralled his first TD on a floating pass from Hearns to provide the final margin, 35-0.
Defensively, the Catamounts played well against their old nemesis ? the triple-option. WCU limited Shorter to six first downs and just 142 yards of total offense including 109 on the ground and 33 through the air. WCU also forced two fumbles despite not coming up with a takeaway.
The Catamounts were led by junior Quintin Phillips with seven and a half tackles, including five solo stops, while juniors Antoine George and Chris Collins each finished with five and a half tackles apiece.
Western Carolina returns to action next Saturday, Sept. 6 as it visits Florida State at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Fla. The Catamounts have played the Seminoles twice before, falling 56-31 in 1981 and 50-10 in ?85, both under legendary head coach Bob Waters.
The game will be broadcast on the Catamount Sports Network with an air time of 5:00 pm, with the kickoff at 6:00 pm. Fans can also follow the game live on a Pay-Per-view basis through SunSports / FSN Florida (check local listings for availability and channels).
POST-GAME NOTES:
SOUNDING OFF THE HORN: Red-shirt senior Andy Horn saw action in just one game prior to his start against Shorter College Thursday night ... His first play under center was a career-high 56 yard pass to Marquel Pittman that set up a six-yard TD scamper by Adam Hearns ... In his second series, Horn directed a five minute scoring drive spanning 12 plays and 90 yards capped off by a six-yard TD strike to Pittman, the first touchdown pass of his career ... Horn ended the game 22-of-33 with 254 yards passing and two touchdown passes.
TRIO OF CATAMOUNTS FIND ENDZONE FOR FIRST TIME IN CAREER: Red-shirt junior Jayson Williams scored his first touchdown as a Catamount with 2:45 left in the first quarter, running 24 yards to the end zone ... Wide receiver Donald James also added to the Catamount point total hauling in the first touchdown pass of his career, a 14-yard TD pass from Andy Horn ... Red-shirt freshman Josh Cockrell also got into the action catching a pass from Adam Hearns for four yards and headed to the end zone; it was Cockrell’s first TD catch of his career.
PACING PITTMAN: Red-shirt sophomore Marquel Pittman tied his career-high with 106 yards receiving against Shorter College Thursday night ... It was just the second time in his Catamount career he has gone over 100-yards receiving ... He also scored his first touchdown of the season on a six-yard TD pass from quarterback Andy Horn.
HEARNS ALL OVER THE BALL: After spending most of his time under center in 2007, Adam Hearns was enjoying a different role against Shorter to start 2008 ... Hearns split time between running back and wide receiver to start the game, scoring the first touchdown of the game on a four-yard touchdown run ... Hearns’ 18-yard reception in the third quarter was a career-high reception ... In the fourth quarter, Hearns returned under center and threw a four-yard touchdown pass to Josh Cockrell ... Hearns ended the game with 34 yards rushing, 18 yards receiving and was 5-of-6 passing for 34 yards and one touchdown.
JAYNES GETS INTO THE ACT: Red-shirt freshman Zack Jaynes saw the first action at quarterback in his Catamount career with 5:01 left to play in the game ... He was 2-of-2 for
LAST TIME SHUTOUT OPPONENT: The last time Western Carolina shutout an opponent was in 2006, when the Catamounts defeated Chowan College 42-0 on August 31 ... It is the first time a first-year head coach has opened the season at home with a shutout.
WESTERN CAROLINA SEASON OPENERS: Western Carolina is now 13-20 in season openers after defeating Shorter Thursday night ... WCU has now won four of its last five season openers ... Western Carolina is 10-1 when playing its season-opener at home.
11-STRAGHT HOME OPENING WINS: The Catamounts have won 11-consecutive openers at home since 1998.
FIRST YEAR HEAD COACHES IN FIRST-EVER GAMES: With the win against Shorter College, Catamount first-year head coach became the fifth Western Carolina first-year head coach to win his opening game, improving the record to 5-5-2.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.?Samford sophomore running back Chris Evans rushed for 180 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries, and the Bulldogs held on late for a 21-19, season-opening win over West Georgia Thursday night at Seibert Stadium. The game was played in front of a crowd of 8,240.
“I want to thank our Samford crowd and Samford family,” head coach Pat Sullivan said. “What an atmosphere we had to play in tonight. They stayed behind us and helped our guys and I want to thank them for what they did.”
Evans’ 180 yards mark the second-highest rushing total of his Samford career, behind the 212 yards he had against Austin Peay in 2007.
“What a job Chris Evans did in the second half,” Sullivan said. “This was a good win for us.”
Samford played two quarterbacks in the game. Starter Dustin Taliaferro was 9-for-19 for 84 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Matt Malouf also played off the bench, completing 10-of-12 passes for 101 yards.
Senior linebacker Rodney Shepherd led the team in tackles with eight, including one for a loss. Kyle Morton had seven tackles and a key interception late in the game.
On special teams, Bob Hooper averaged 41.8 yards on six punts, placing three kicks inside the 20-yard line. Place-kicker John Paul Fraites was 3-for-3 on point-after attempts.
“I think one of the big keys to our win tonight was the punting of Bob Hooper,” Sullivan said. “John Paul not only made all of his kicks, but he kicked the ball off well.”
For West Georgia, Sean Gray completed 24-of-50 passes for 315 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Wilson Kimble caught nine passes for 184 yards and two touchdowns.
Samford got on the board first when Taliaferro hit Jonathan Lowery for a five-yard touchdown in the back of the end zone with 2:22 to play in the first quarter. The play capped a 19-play, 99-yard drive that took 7:31 off the clock. Fraites added the extra point to give Samford a 7-0 lead.
West Georgia tied the score with 11:59 to play in the second quarter when Gray hit Kimble on a 14-yard touchdown. Jared Guberman added the PAT to tie the score at 7-7. The Wolves took the lead with 6:47 left in the second quarter when Guberman kicked a 28-yard field goal to make the score 10-7.
The score remained 10-7 through most of the third quarter until Samford retook the lead with 4:08 to go in the quarter. Evans ran for a six-yard score and Fraites added the PAT to give the Bulldogs a 14-10 lead.
West Georgia cut the Samford lead to 14-13 with 11:25 to go in the fourth quarter when Guberman kicked a 24-yard field goal. Evans then struck for his second touchdown of the game, scoring on a 54-yard run with 10:37 to play. Fraites’ PAT gave Samford a 21-13 lead.
West Georgia cut the Samford lead to 21-19 on an 87-yard touchdown pass from Gray to Kimble with 4:53 to play. The two-point conversion attempt was no good, preserving Samford’s lead.
West Georgia drove into Samford territory again late in the fourth quarter, but Morton’s interception with 1:39 to play ended the Wolves’ final threat.
Samford is now 1-0 with the win, while West Georgia is 0-1. The win marks the seventh year in a row Samford has won its season-opening game.
Samford will return to action on Saturday, Sept. 6, when the Bulldogs play host to Faulkner. The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. kickoff from Seibert Stadium.