BUCKHANNON – The West Virginia Wesleyan Bobcats couldn't sustain their early momentum against the University of Charleston in their 2014 season debut.
A seven-yard scoring strike from Jeremy Musselman (Walkersville, Md./Criminal Justice) to Chase Blackwell (Tempe, Az./Sports Business) gave the Bobcats a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter.
Charleston took control of the game after Wesleyan score and never looked back in a 42-21 victory at Cebe Ross Field Saturday afternoon.
The momentum of the game turned on the Bobcats in the second quarter as they were outscored by a 21-0 margin. The 'Cats missed a field goal and had an interception in that quarter.
"The second quarter really hurt us," remarked Wesleyan head coach George Shehl. "We made some mistakes and lost field position. We gave Charleston a short field to work with most of that quarter. Give Charleston credit, they made the most of their opportunities."
Wesleyan put together a five-play, 58 drive to open the scoring that culminated in the seven-yard scoring toss. Kasper Bernild (Hvidore, Denmark/Economics) made the extra point to give the Bobcats a 7-0 lead.
Charleston though took control of the game after that scoring 35 unanswered points.
Marvin Elam scored on a seven-yard run, Dustin Phelps scampered for a five-yard touchdown run and John Knox plunged in from two yards out in the second quarter to give the Golden Eagles a 21-7 lead at the intermission.
Charleston tacked on two more touchdowns in the third quarter before Wesleyan could get back on the scoreboard.
The Bobcats went on an 11-play, 80-yard march that ended on a Raymond Myers (Fort Meade, Md./Computer Science) two-yard touchdown run.
Wesleyan went for the two-point conversion and was successful when Tyler Bolen (Parkersburg, W. Va./Education) flipped a short pass to Justin Forchion (Land O' Lakes, Fla./Business Management) to make it a 35-15 game.
After Phelps scored on another five-yard run, Wesleyan wrapped up the scoring a 10-play, 68-yard drive that ended with a three-yard touchdown pass to Jamale Myrick with (Baltimore, Md./Business Management) from Bolen.
It looked like the pass would be intercepted, but Myrick out jumped and took it away from the Charleston defender.
Wesleyan's Michael Anderson (Elkridge, Md./Exercise Science) led all rushers with 140 yards on 24 carries. Jerel English (Frederick Md./Secondary Education) added 46 yards on five attempts and Bolen added 35 yards on seven tries.
Musselman completed seven of his 18 passes for 96 yards before leaving the game at halftime with an injury.
Bolen played the second half and completed seven of his 13 passes for 69 yards and one touchdown.
Blackwell led the Bobcat receiving group with five catches for 57 yards and one touchdown.
"This one game won't define our season," Shehl concluded. "It's just one game of many during our season. We weren't going to win any rings if we won the game and they were going to tell us the season was over if we lost."
The game was the first played on Wesleyan's new FieldTurf that was recently put down at Ross Field.
The Bobcats will return to action next Saturday when they hit road for a conference game against UVa.-Wise. Kick-off is slated for noon.
UVa.-Wise lost their opener to Urbana by a 24-13 score.
(Photo courtesy of Pete Galarneau Jr.)
