BUCKHANNON -- Coming off a tough loss last week to nationally-ranked Shepherd, head coach George Shehl was waiting to see how his West Virginia Wesleyan Bobcats would respond this week against Glenville State.
His young Bobcats responded accordingly as they piled up 460 yards of offense in a wild 38-35 win.
"This team never quits," remarked Shehl. "Win or lose they are going to fight to the very end and that did that again against Glenville State. We have a young team that never quits fighting."
Shehl's Bobcats could have folded early after Glenville State took their opening drive of the game in for a touchdown just 2:11 into the game.
Instead the 'Cats clawed thier way right back into the game, scoring on their first offensive series of the game. It was a 76-yard, 14-yard drive that culminated with a seven-yard scoring reception by Dylan Davis from Jeremy Musselman.
Following an interception by Wesleyan's Robert Armstrong at the GSC 21-yard line, it took the Bobcats just two plays to score.
Following a negative five-yard rush, Musselman hit Chase Blackwell for a 26-yard scoring strike to give Wesleyan a 14-7 lead.
After a Glenville State field goal early in the second quarter, the Wesleyan offense went back to work with an eight-play, 67-yard drive that finished with an eight-yard scamper by Musselman.
Musselman was injured on the play, but he gave Wesleyan a 21-10 lead with 7:41 remaining in the second quarter.
A Glenville State touchdown made it 21-17 and the two teams traded field goals as the game went into intermission with Wesleyan holding a 24-20 lead.
Wesleyan took their opening possession of the second half and marched right down the field. The put together a 77-yard drive in 11 plays that chewed up nearly four minutes of clock.
The drive ended with a five-yard reception to Zach Schademan from Tyler Bolen. That treated Wesleyan to a 31-20 advantage.
Glenville came right back and scored on their first offensive play as Rahmann Lee went 59 yards untouched to trim the Wesleyan lead to 31-27 with 10:56 remaining in the third quarter.
Davis caught his second touchdown of the game with a nice reception in the back of the end zone from a Bolen pass that upped the Wesleyan advantage to 38-27 with 7:09 remaining in the game.
GSC wouldn't go away though and scored on a four-yard run by Lee with 3:37 left in the contest.
Lee darted his way inside for the two-point conversion to make it a 38-35 contest.
Wesleyan though recovered on the onside kick and killed the rest of the clock. The Bobcats converted an important fourth-and-one play with two minutes remaining to drain the clock.
Michael Anderson (pictured) had a big day on the ground for Wesleyan gaining 119 yards on 30 carries.
Schademan hauled in 10 passes for 122 yards and one score while Blackwell had nine catches for 71 yards.
Musselman was good on 14 of his 18 passes for 137 yards and two touchdowns.
Bolen completed 18 of his 25 passes for 187 yards and two scores.
The two quarterbacks combined to complete 32 of their 43 passes for 324 yards.
"I thought Bolen came into the game and made the plays he needed to make," Shehl said. "He played well.
"It sounds simple. but were just throwing the ball where they weren't. I thought they were having trouble covering our spread offense and trying to contain the ground game in the box too."
The loss dropped Glenville State to 1-4 overall.
Wesleyan improved to 2-3 overall.
They will return to action next Saturday when they travel to West Virginia State for a 1:30 p.m. kick-off.
(Photo courtesy of Peter Galarneau Jr.)
