Concord Comes Up Short at West Virginia State

INSTITUTE, W.Va. -  Senior quarterback Brian Novak and senior wide receivers Jermeil Douse and Davon McGill had career days, but Concord fell on the road against West Virginia State, 52-45, Saturday afternoon at Dickerson Stadium in Mountain East Conference action.

Novak finished the afternoon with 403 yards through the air and five touchdowns as he tied his career high in touchdowns and went over 400 yards passing for the first time since the 2014 season when he did so against Bowie State.

For Douse he found the end zone three times on Saturday which set a new single-game best. Douse caught nine passes for 168 yards. Meanwhile, McGill posted a career-high 158 receiving yards as he found pay dirt a total of three times, twice through the air and once on the ground.

The game featured five ties and five lead changes.

With the contest tied 24-24 at halftime, West Virginia State receiver Quinton Gray gave the Yellow Jackets the lead just 49 seconds in the second half. However, Douse hauled in a score from 21 yards out to tie the game just over 90 seconds later.

The third quarter featured three more scores as WVSU tallied two touchdowns and McGill broke off a 62-yard rush for a touchdown. Heading to the fourth quarter, West Virginia State held a 45-38 edge.

WVSU went up two possessions five seconds into the fourth quarter. The score was set up by a CU fumble deep in Concord territory that allowed a short, three-yard run by Dionta Brown to make the game 52-38.

Novak connected with McGill with 2:23 left in the contest to cut the deficit to 52-45. After the Yellow Jackets recovered the onside kick, CU could not stop WVSU as it ran out the clock and hung on for a seven-point win.

Defensively for the Mountain Lions, sophomore linebacker Zach Malone eclipsed 100 tackles on the season as he collected 13 on the day to give him an even 100 on the season. Senior defensive back Akil Bordelon had 10 stops and intercepted his fifth pass of the season to tie for the MEC lead in picks.

Senior defensive lineman Kevin Pierre notched a career-high nine tackles

The 601 yards of offense the Mountain Lions racked up were the most since the West Chester game during the 2014 season when they had 619.

McGill added 62 yards rushing in addition to the 158 receiving yards. Freshman running back JaVaughan Burrus had 57 yards rushing.

CU concludes the regular season 2:00 p.m. next Saturday at UNC-Pembroke.