by Matt Cooke
The West Georgia Wolves racked up a school record 646 yards of offense, including 400 on the ground on November 1 at University Stadium, powering past Mississippi College by a 55-14 score in the first matchup between the two teams since 1995.
"I'm pleased with the way we bounced back today," said head coach Will Hall. "You come off of a stretch where you play four very good football teams like we have and sometimes there can be a letdown, but we said that at 5:00 today we wanted to be a better football program than earlier in the day and I think we are."
Senior running back Seth Hinsley continued to inch closer to the UWG Hall of Fame, leading all rushers with 140 yards on the afternoon on just 14 carries, averaging a whopping 10 yards per carry, a single-game career high for him. But for the second straight home game, Seth was the workhorse between the 20s, but his teammates brought home the scores, as Lane Thompson had two rushing touchdowns and Alex Macaulay had two receiving touchdowns.
The game stayed scoreless for more than 10 minutes at the outset of the game, as the UWG defense allowed very little and the offense struggled to get things rolling. The Wolves had three first downs on the first two drives, moving deep into Mississippi College territory twice, but coming away empty-handed on both occasions. West Georgia took the ball on their third possession of the game and found paydirt, as Dallas Dickey capped a 43-yard drive with an 18-yard strike to Earvin Anumgba for the first score of the game.
The score remained 7-0 until the first play of the second quarter, when senior quarterback Emmanuel Taylor, who split time with Dallas on Saturday, connected with Alex for the second score of the contest. That drive covered 49 yards and included a 3-for-3 effort from Emmanuel for 38 yards. He connected twice with Alex on the drive, including a 15-yard catch and the scoring reception.
Another three-and-out and the Wolves were back in business on the offensive side, albeit from their own 16 after the Choctaws used the wind advantage on a punt to pin UWG deep. But Seth made quick work of that, rambling 60 yards on the first play from scrimmage to put the Wolves back in scoring position. Two plays later, Denarius Appling raced 18 yards for the score, putting the Wolves up 21-7 with 11:35 left in the second quarter.
Mississippi College responded with a scoring drive on the next possession, as Kyle Smith completed a 33-yard pass to James Banks to make the score 21-7. West Georgia fought right back, going on the longest march of the game, an 11-play, 75-yard touchdown march that ended with Lane Thompson's first touchdown of the day, a seven-yard scamper that put UWG up 28-7.
The second half began with a UWG drive that covered 71 yards in six plays, finishing off with an Emmanuel Taylor pass to Alex for a 34-yard touchdown to give West Georgia a commanding 35-7 lead. Emmanuel added a 27-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter to Chris Terry to put the Wolves ahead 41-7 heading into the 4th.
Mississippi College added a 4th-quarter score and West Georgia put two more on the board, including Thompson's second score of the day and a nifty 24-yard scamper from junior quarterback Adam Holley to close out the scoring.
In addition to Seth's 140 yards, the Wolves picked up a 65-yard game from senior Justin Billings, 59 yards and two scores from Thompson, 58 yards and a touchdown from Denarius, 46 yards from Taylor and 37 yards and a touchdown from Adam. Emmanuel was 11-of-15 for 160 yards and three touchdowns through the air and Dallas added a 5-for-11 effort for 66 yards.
The 646 yards of total offense were the most in school history, moving ahead of the 640-yard West Georgia effort against Presbyterian in 2001. It was just the third time in school history that a UWG squad had more than 600 yards of offense in a single game.
West Georgia moves to 7-2 on the year and 3-2 in Gulf South Conference play. With Will Hall in his first year at the helm of the program, the win marks the first time since 2005 that a UWG team has had seven or more wins in a single season. The win keeps West Georgia in the hunt for the Division II NCAA playoffs, as the Wolves are currently the sixth-ranked team in Super Region 2.
The home regular season schedule will come to a close next week for UWG, as the Wolves welcome Florida Tech to Ra-Lin Field at University Stadium. Kickoff for that game is set for 2 p.m., and the game will be the GSC-TV Live Game of the Week on ESPN3.
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