Box Score
ATHENS, W. Va. – The Concord University football team held West Virginia State to just 211 yards of total offense en route to a 36-3 win Saturday at Callaghan Stadium in Mountain East Conference competition.
The triumph keeps Concord's record perfect on the season at 2-0 overall and 1-0 in MEC play. The loss drops West Virginia State's record to 0-2 overall and 0-1 in conference play.
As a team, Concord held advantages over West Virginia State in virtually every statistical category including total yards (391-211), passing yards (317-138), rushing yards (74-73) and first downs (15-12).
The Mountain Lions' defense intercepted three passes off of Yellow Jacket quarterback Tyler Seals including senior cornerback
Riyahd Richardson's 30-yard "pick six" in the third quarter. Senior linebacker
Jake Lilly and senior safety
Davon Marion also intercepted passes.
Lilly recorded a game-best 13 tackles for the second time in as many weeks to go with his interception. Sophomore defensive lineman
Ervin Moore tallied two sacks and a total of four tackles for loss on the day. Junior defensive lineman
Will Greathouse also collected four tackles for loss as part of his career-high 10-tackle game.
Other defensive contributors on Saturday included junior defensive lineman
Keith Ferguson (nine tackles), sophomore linebacker
Austin Dotson (eight tackles), junior linebacker
Gary Saylor (seven tackles) and junior defensive back
Shawn Billups Jr. (five tackles).
Offensively, Concord was paced by sophomore wide receiver
Tiko Henderson, who hauled in five receptions for a career-best 143 yards and one touchdown. Henderson's score was an 86-yard reception in the first quarter from redshirt freshman quarterback
Brian Novak.
Novak finished 21-for-30 for one touchdown, 281 yards and four interceptions. Also throwing a touchdown pass Saturday was redshirt freshman tight end
Dalton Brindo, who caught a backwards pass from Novak and found sophomore wide receiver
D.J. Holmes who went 36 yards for the score in the second quarter.
Marion came away with his first interception of the season on the Yellow Jackets' opening series which set up a 12-play, 50-yard Concord drive that ended with a successful field goal by sophomore kicker
Andy Ellington to make it a 3-0 game with 8:47 left in the first quarter.
On the ensuing possession, West Virginia State managed to drive the ball down to the Concord 14-yard line before being forced to settle for a field goal attempt which was blocked by Dotson. The next series saw Novak find Henderson for the 86-yard score. A two point conversion attempt was unsuccessful, but the Maroon and Gray still took a 9-0 lead into the second quarter.
The Mountain Lions pushed their lead to 15-0 off of Brindo's touchdown pass midway through the second quarter. WVST finally ended CU's shutout attempt with a field goal at the 1:33 mark in the first half and headed into halftime trailing Concord by 12 points (15-3).
The second half was all Concord as the Mountain Lions opened the third quarter by forcing two consecutive three and outs by the Yellow Jackets' offense with Richardson earning his interception return for a touchdown on State's third drive of the period to boost CU's advantage to 22-3.
Concord added two touchdowns off of matching one-yard runs from redshirt freshman
Sam Wright and junior
Ben Nester in the fourth quarter on its way to the 36-3 win.
Richardson's interception was his 11th career INT, the fourth most in Concord history. Also moving up the CU record books was Lilly, who now stands third all-time in total tackles with 285.
The Mountain Lions step out of conference play for a final time next week at Bowie State. The Sept. 21 kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.
