Images by Greg Barnett
Athens – Of Dave Walker’s three games he’s coached at Concord, two have been against West Virginia Wesleyan.
The early returns are good.
“I wonder if they’ll play us a third time,” Walker joked after the game.
Concord quarterback Jack Mangel tossed four touchdown passes, finding receiver Tywan Pearce seven times for 107 yards and two scores as the Mountain Lions held on to beat the Bobcats 28-25 Saturday at Callaghan Stadium.
In a game marred by penalties and turnovers, Concord overcame its own mistakes to hang on for the win.
“I thought we came together,” Walker said. “There’s going to be some frustration, but overall I thought we handled it a lot better than we did in Week 1, which I think probably made the difference in the game.”
Receiving the opening kick, the hosts immediately shot themselves in the foot when the return was fumbled, setting Wesleyan up deep in CU territory.
The Mountain Lion defense held, coming up with a third-down sack to push the Bobcats out of field goal range.
“Well really we were just sending a lot of pressure at them,” Concord defensive lineman Noah Overstreet said. “We wanted to get after the quarterback and those first couple of drives we were successful in that.”
When the offense finally did hit the field it clicked from the go.
Mangel hit Kris Copeland for a 16-yard completion on a corner route, following it up with a 33-yard completion to Bryce Klinger up the seam. Three plays later the junior found running back Justin Lee in the flat and he took care of the rest, jolting 18 yards for the first score of the game.
Another third-down sack of Wesleyan forced a punt and Mangel again capitalized hitting Pearce on a slot fade for a 17-yard score.
“We call that play ‘Hoss’ which means hitches outside of the seam,” Mangel said. “We read the safety on it and if he comes down it pops wide open. It’s a great play we got. Pre-snap I got a good look at it and knew it was going to be a touchdown, I just hoped I had a couple of seconds to throw it and it was going to be there.”
Afterwards the mistakes took hold again.
Penalties on defense extended a Wesleyan drive twice with the end result being a touchdown. They didn’t just plague the defense. A long Copeland touchdown run was called back on a penalty and the Bobcats again took advantage when Wesleyan quarterback Nathan Payne launched a 68-yard scoring strike to Devin Taylor as he took a shot from the defense.
Fortunately for the hosts the Bobcats they maintained a lead as the visitors finished the day 1-for-4 on point after attempts.
It also helped they found their groove as Pearce and Copeland were the recipients of two more Mangel touchdown passes before the halftime horn sounded.
“My eyes were actually wrong at first,” Mangel said of his third touchdown pass of the day. “I was actually looking at (Jarod) Bowie first and I heard TP yell at me ‘jet, jet, jet’ and I saw him wide open and just put it out there for him.”
Set to cruise to an easy win, the Mountain Lions did the opposite.
An interception and two fumbles in the second half, one on a muffed punt, allowed the Bobcats to slither back in the game.
But again the game came down to Wesleyan kicker Liam Depp and he was unable to deliver.
Depp converted on one of his PAT attempts and had an opportunity to tie the game with 1:40 left but pulled a 21-yard field goal attempt wide left. On third-and-7 the Mountain Lions put the game away as Mangel rolled right and Pearce for a gain of 13 to improve Concord to 1-1.
For Pearce it was his third consecutive game in which he crossed the century mark in receiving yards after only having done so twice in his career beforehand.
“I guess the whole new coaching staff,” Parce said when asked about his emergence. “It starts with Coach Ferg who called great plays. We get a protection right and I’ve got the best quarterback in the freaking nation so it’s all there. I just did my job and they just get it to me.”
Concord will host Frostburg State next Saturday at 1 p.m.