Concord Welcomes West Virginia State to Callaghan Stadium

Concord Stats - West Virginia State Stats - Live Audio - Live Stats - Live Video - Complete Game Notes

ATHENS, W.Va. - The Concord University football team returns home after a tough overtime loss at Glenville State to face West Virginia State 12:00 p.m. Saturday at Callaghan Stadium. 

LIVE COVERAGE
Audio: Jason Reed and Steve Cox will have live radio play-by-play of Saturday's game on 94.5 "Willie" FM as well as online at mywillie.com
Stats: The Concord University Sports Information Department will provide live in-game statistics of the contest. 
Video: Live streaming video with Reed and Cox's play-by-play action will be available courtesy of Concord Sports Information. 
TV: WVVA-TV out of Bluefield, West Virignia will be broadcasting the game live with a stream on www.wvva.com/live

RECORDS
The Mountain Lions are 0-3, both overall and in the Mountain East Conference after the 27-20 defeat at GSC.

West Virginia State has a pair of three-point MEC wins, but suffered a setback with a 56-10 loss to Division I FCS school Southeast Missouri to move its record to 2-1 overall and 2-0 in the MEC.

SCOOP AND SCORE
Junior defensive back Imani Moore had a career day at Glenville State. The Dublin, California native came up with personal single-game highs in tackles (nine) and fumble recoveries (two) including the second one going for an 81-yard touchdown to tie the game in the fourth quarter. Moore is the only player in the conference with two fumble recoveries and is just one of three players in Super Region One with multiple fumble recoveries. Moore is also the first Concord defender with two fumble recoveries in the same game since Riyahd Richardson in 2013. It marked the second straight year the Mountain Lions had a defensive touchdown against Glenville State after junior defensive lineman—linebacker in 2018—Alec Henderson returned an interception for a score. Furthermore, Moore's fumble return was the longest scoring play for CU since Calvinaugh Jones ran for an 82-yard touchdown against UVa.-Wise in 2015. 

TOP TARGET
In redshirt freshman quarterback Matt Shearer's first collegiate start, junior wide receiver Tywan Pearce was Shearer's favorite wide receiver as Pearce hauled in a career-best nine catches for 59 yards. The North Kissimmee, Florida native was targeted 15 times by Shearer. Against Frostburg State, senior wide receiver Brandon Plyler caught seven passes for 108 yards as senior quarterback Kyle Akin looked for Plyler on nine attempts. Saturday marked the first time that two different CU receivers caught seven or more passes in back-to-back games since Pearce and Plyler last season against Notre Dame and UVa.-Wise. Pearce's performance at GSC comes on the heels of the matchup with West Virginia State where he has three career receiving touchdowns, and had a career-best 98 receiving yards last season versus WVSU. 

TIGHTENING UP
On the road last week, the Mountain Lions saw GSC march into the red zone six times in the game, but only come away with points on two trips. Two times Concord forced missed field goals from the Pioneers while the other two scoreless trips resulted in senior linebacker Jalen Hairston and sophomore defensive lineman Nathan Lease stuffing a 4th-and-2 from the eight-yard line and the scoop and score by Moore. For the season, Concord's opponents have been in the red zone 15 times, but have only come up with a touchdown six times. Only Frostburg State, Glenville State and Urbana have allowed fewer red zone touchdowns among MEC teams. 

SPECIAL TEAMS ARE SPECIAL
At Glenville State, the CU special teams were stellar. Sophomore kicker Luke Walls had his second career multi-field goal game—the other at West Virginia Wesleyan last season. Walls moved into a tie for fifth in all-time points at Concord with 68, matching Zack Keaton's career total. The Mountain Lions also executed a fake punt that saw sophomore linebacker Grant Mohler, a former high school quarterback and running back, scamper 49 yards to set up a goal-to-go situation for Concord, and freshman running back Derek Kincaid's first career touchdown in the second quarter. Mohler's run was the first fake successfully executed by the Concord special teams since the 2014 season opener when Andy Ellington completed a 21-yard touchdown pass to Davon McGill against Glenville State. 

DOWN IN THE TRENCHES
The foursome of senior defensive lineman Ryan Gatrell, sophomore defensive lineman Nathan Lease, senior defensive lineman DeAnthony Muse and junior defensive lineman JT Turner have combined to be one of the best defensive fronts in terms of making tackles in the league. Gatrell, Lease and Muse are all in the top 10 in the MEC for tackles among defensive linemen. The only other school with three players in the top 10 in tackles among defensive linemen is Notre Dame. Additionally, Gatrell's 5.5 tackles for loss are only one behind the league lead being set by Fairmont State's Carl Igweh.

THE REUNION
A week after squaring off with former Concord head coach Mike Kellar and one-time CU assistant Steve Adams, head coach Paul Price will welcome some more old friends to Athens this Saturday. WVSU head coach John Pennington is in his third season as the head man for the Yellow Jackets. During the offseason, Pennington added two-time First Team All-MEC offensive lineman Derek Dressler as an assistant to the defensive line. Pennington was the wide receivers coach and special teams coordinator at Concord from 2011-2014 in which the Mountain Lions went 35-12 and won two conference championships. 

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
0- Concord's turnover margin in each game this season has been even. 

8- Plyler moved into a tie for eighth in the career receptions with Ryan Stewart with 107 career catches.

35- All three touchdowns Concord scored against WVSU last season were from at least 35 yards away. 

WEST VIRGINIA STATE AT A GLANCE
Before the Yellow Jackets lost on the road to nationally-ranked Southeast Missouri, West Virginia State picked up a 20-17 road win to start the season against Frostburg State before returning home to edge out Glenville State 33-30. Quarterback Austin Hensley, who was the MEC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance against Glenville State, has thrown for 782 yards and four touchdowns in three games. Receivers Isiah Scott (93) and Zach Pate (81) are both averaging at least 80 yards receiving per game. Dustin Crouser, a former UNC-Charlotte linebacker, has already been the MEC Defensive Player of the Week for his efforts against Frostburg, and is second in the conference in total tackles with 36.