Western Carolina 24 Wofford 17 [Archive]

catamount man

October 18th, 2015, 08:26 AM

From the Asheville Citizen-Times, October 18, 2015

SPARTANBURG, S.C. For a program that has aspirations of winning a Southern Conference championship for the first time in school history, Saturday’s win for Western Carolina was huge on many levels. The 24-17 victory over Wofford College was the first vfor the Catamounts at Gibbs Stasdium since 1981.
The Catamounts (4-2, 2-1) also kept their poise after jumping to leads of 17-3 and 24-3. The Terriers (3-4. 1-2 SoCon)h came back and had the ball with a chance but the defense didn’t panic and forced their fifth turnover of the game.
Most important, a win was crucial because the Cats dropped their conference opener to The Citadel, which improved to 3-0 Saturday along with conference co-leader Chattanooga.
“This is a very significant win for our program,” said wide receiver Karnorris Benson, who scored on a 22-yard touchdown pass in the first half.
“Coming off that loss to The Citadel it was like a win or go home for us.”
Added linebacker Tyson Dickson, who had a fumble recovery that led to a field goal, “Now we just keep pushing the gas, keep pushing the gas toward the championship and toward our goals. It doesn’t stop here, it doesn’t stop.”

While Wofford is having a down year the program has been successful under coach Mike Ayers and the option offense is hard for anyone to defend. The Terriers didn’t wilt when they went into the locker room trailing 17-0. They trailed 24-3 going into the fourth quarter, but scored twice to cut the lead to 24-17 with 5:44 remaining.
Wofford forced a three and out and got the ball back on its 20 with 4:32 left.
The Terriers moved to their 32 but on fourth and 10 running back Hunter Windham was thrown for a seven-yard loss and lost the ball, which was recovered by Caleb Hawkins with 1:27 remaining, which sealed the win for the Catamounts.
“They’re learning not to panic. They’re learning to control what they control and handle the next play,” said coach Mark Speir, who has the program headed toward its second straight winning season.
“It would have been easy to spit the bit out a lot of times this year. But they just keep finding a way.”

The Cats dominated the first half, scoring after three Wofford turnovers to take a 17-0 lead. Quarterback Troy Mitchell, coming off last week’s injury, completed 21 of 27 passes for 203 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for 42 yards on eight carries. His first touchdown, a 22-yard strike to Benson, gave the Cats a 14-0 lead.
“The offensive line had great protection and Troy stood in their like a man and delivered the pass and I was able to make a play,” Benson said.
Benson took the pass with one hand on the 3 and carried two defenders into the end zone.
“Grown man ball,” he said.
Corey Holloway scored on a 2-yard run and Mitchell threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to running back Detrez Newsome to give the Cats a 24-3 lead.
“Winning here means a lot,” Speir said.

GO CATS!!!