Concord Makes Longest Trip of Season to Face Wheeling

Concord Stats - Wheeling Stats - Live Stats - Live Video - Complete Game Notes

ATHENS, W.Va. - The Concord University football team plays the first of consecutive road games when it visits Wheeling 12:10 p.m. Saturday in a Mountain East Conference contest.

LIVE COVERAGE
Stats: The Wheeling University Sports Information Department will provide live in-game statistics of Saturday's contest
Video: Live streaming video will also be available courtesy of Wheeling.

RECORDS
The Mountain Lions have a record of 2-5 this season after a narrow two-point loss to West Virginia State.

Wheeling improved to 4-4 overall and 4-3 in the MEC after a 26-20 overtime win over West Liberty.

RECORD-SETTING DAY
Fifth-year senior wide receiver Tywan Pearce became Concord's all-time receptions leader on Saturday as he hauled in 13 catches for 191 yards and three touchdowns. The North Kissimmee, Florida native moved past Thomas Mayo (2008-10) who had 205 catches. Pearce now has 212 receptions at CU. Additionally, Pearce went over 1,000 receiving yards for the season with Saturday's performance, becoming the first pass catcher at Concord with a 1,000-yard season since TJ Smith in 2014. Overall, Pearce has the seventh 1,000-yard receiving season in program history. By throwing for 407 yards—his third game this season with 400 or more passing yards—junior quarterback Jack Mangel became just the sixth quarterback in program history with 2,000 or more passing yards in a single season. Mangel has 2,215 passing yards while Pearce has 1,004 receiving yards—both the best in the MEC.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Due to injuries, senior defensive back Zion Barnette moved over to the offensive side of the ball versus West Virginia State where he proceeded to haul in six receptions for 125 yards, making him the third CU receiver with a 100-yard game this fall. Furthermore, Barnette became the second Concord receiver with 100 or more yards in their offensive debut in the last eight games, joining Teddy Marshall's 100 yards at West Virginia Wesleyan in the spring. While serving as CU's punter for the season, freshman kicker Mikey Rago was called into action for field goals and point after tries against WVSU. The Daleville, Virginia native connected on both field goal attempts, from 27 and 37 yards, while hitting all three extra points. The duo of sophomore kicker Giovanni Christiano and Rago are a combined 8-of-10 on field goals this season. Pulling double duty on Saturday, Rago also averaged a season-best 43.8 yards per punt on four boots.

GETTING HOME
Senior defensive lineman Dajor Davenport collected two sacks versus West Virginia State and upped his total to the season to four. The Covington, Virginia native is tied for 10^th in the MEC in sacks. Additionally, he is the first Concord player with two sacks in the same game since Malik Trollinger at UNC-Pembroke in 2017. The Mountain Lions added a total of seven tackles for loss against West Virginia State, the second-highest TFL count for the season. Along with Davenport, junior linebacker Jordan Jones added two tackles for loss while senior defensive back Rashon Lusane notched 1.5 tackles for loss. Davenport and Lusane are tied for the team lead in TFLs along with senior linebacker Tylen Fowler. The trio have five tackles for loss.

COLLECTIVE EFFORT
The Concord ground game went over 100 yards rushing for a third straight game after amassing 137 rushing yards. Junior wide receiver Kris Copeland averaged 8.4 yards on 10 carries. The pro-style quarterback Mangel added 22 yards and his first career rushing touchdown—the first rushing score by a CU quarterback since Kyle Akin versus West Virginia Wesleyan in 2019. Additionally, the offensive line spearheaded by senior Davis Roberson at center and senior Josh Ramos at left tackle allowed just two negative rushing plays on the afternoon, a season low. Saturday marked the first time the Mountain Lions had three straight games of 100 or more rushing yards since the second, third and fourth games of the 2019 season. Wheeling's rush defense is allowing 117 yards per game this season.

BY AIR OR GROUND
Mangel and Pearce have been the top quarterback-receiving tandem in the MEC throughout the season as Mangel ranks sixth in Division II in passing yards per game (316.4) while his 25.8 completions per game are eighth in the country. Pearce remains second in Division II in yards per game (143.4) and his 11 receiving touchdowns are tied for sixth. While Concord has the best receiver in the MEC, Wheeling counters with workhorse running back Sy Alli to pace its offense. Alli leads the conference in rushing yards (756) and is second in attempts (173). The Wheeling rusher accounts for 94 of the Cardinals' 112 rushing yards per game. Mangel has only been held under 200 passing yards twice this season, but will have to solve a WU pass defense that allows just 188 yards per game.

CLOSE CALLS
Saturday was the fifth time this season, the Mountain Lions have been in a game decided by seven points or less with four of those game being decided by four points or less. The only other team in the MEC that has been involved in five games this season decided by one possession is UNC-Pembroke who matched Concord with a 21-14 win over Charleston. Take out CU and UNC-Pembroke and the rest of the MEC has combined to be involved in one possession games 21 times this season. The only meeting in the all-time series between CU and Wheeling was decided by a score to close the 2019 season as the Cardinals squeaked out a 27-20 win. Senior defensive lineman Nathan Lease had six tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss. Junior defensive lineman Noah Overstreet added six more tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
6- Concord scored on all six of its red zone trips Saturday, including four touchdowns.

10- Career-high tackles for junior linebacker Ty Maust versus West Virginia State.

169- Rushing yards by Alli two seasons ago against Concord.

WHEELING AT A GLANCE
This fall is just the second full season of football for the Cardinals. Wheeling went 1-10 in 2019 before a shortened 2-2 season in the spring. Brennon Norris has thrown 11 touchdowns, but is only averaging 200 passing yards. More than half of his touchdowns have gone to Ryan LaFollette with the wideout hauling in six scores. Brandon Munoz has 6.5 sacks this season which ranks fourth in the MEC. The Cardinals have defended their home field this season, going 3-1. And in the three wins, Wheeling has given up just 26 points, including shutting out West Virginia Wesleyan.