By Josh Landis
The Yellow Jacket football team is scheduled to open Saturday at home against Glenville State after an impressive 20-17 road win at Frostburg State on Sept. 5.
Photo by Dempsey Dickson
Although the Yellow Jackets scored only 20 points, they totaled an impressive 517 yards on offense, with 251 yards came from the arm of senior quarterback Austin Hensley, who completed 18 of 29 passes. He made an impressive comeback in this season’s Mountain East Conference (MEC) opener after an unfortunate injury at the start of last season.
Senior Zach Pate was the leading receiver with 84 yards on seven catches. Carl Garmon, Dylan Lucas and Donovan Riddick shared the load in the backfield, totaling 236 yards on the ground.
“We got to cut out mistakes,” State head coach John Pennington said. State was penalized 13 times for 125 yards. “The effort was great, the intensity was great, the leadership was great, we were never affected by any adversity, but we never would have had to handle that if we limited our mistakes,” he said.
Defensively, State held Frostburg State to 373 total yards. Senior Linebacker Dustin Crouser dominated, making 14 tackles and one tackle for a loss. Jamal Fox tallied seven tackles along, with Tevon Littleton adding six. Crouser was named MEC defensive player of the week.
MEC opponent Glenville State and first-year head coach Mike Kellar will venture to Lakin Field at Dickerson Stadium after a win of their own on the road, topping Alderson-Broaddus 33-21.
“This is kind of like a championship game to us. These are two teams who are 1-0 that are trying to vie their way to the top of the conference,” Pennington said. “We’ll find out this Saturday who is ready to take the next step.”
The Pioneers established a strong run game, totaling 233 yards. They picked up 180 yards through the air. The Pioneers, much like State, like to share the workload on the ground with three different ball carriers getting touches.
Pennington expressed the importance of having a big crowd this year.
“We’ve had great support and having that big crowd is going to be something we are going to need. It’s gonna be a dog fight,” he said.
The game is scheduled to kick off at 1 p.m. Saturday at Lakin Field at Dickerson Stadium. The game can be viewed via live stream at https://team1sports.com/mountaineast/
