INSTITUTE — West Virginia Wesleyan College dropped its fourth straight football contest Saturday, falling on the road, 48-22, to West Virginia State University.
State put up the first 17 points on an Isaiah Bess 13-yard touchdown toss to Kevin McCarty midway through the first quarter, a Brennen Schmitt 37-yard field goal at the top of the second quarter and a Joel Felder 4-yard run that capped a 60-yard drive with 8:30 left in the half.
Liam Depp’s 45-yard field goal at 4:07 in the second got the Bobcats on the board, but the Yellow Jackets struck back with a touchdown on a 1-yard rush by Justin Pessoa with 37 seconds before the whistle and State took a 24-3 lead into the locker room.
State scored 17 additional points before Wesleyan found the end zone at 10:46 in the fourth quarter when Wesley Sweeney ran 12 yards for the touchdown to cap a Bobcats 80-yard, 16-play drive. The Yellow Jackets, again, immediately answered with a 37-yard pass from Caleb Jantuah to Nolan Johnson to put State up 48-10 with 7:43 remaining in the game.
The Bobcats scored two late touchdowns, one at 4:52 when Brandon Roberts grabbed an 18-yard pass from Nathan Payne for the score, and the second with seven seconds left in the game when Payne threw his second touchdown to Deion King for a 30-yard strike.
Wesleyan’s offense produced 169 yards on the ground and 178 through the air for a 347-yard total, a considerable improvement over last week’s 11 yards net on the ground and 144 yards passing against Duquesne.
The Bobcats spend one more weekend on the road before returning to Cebe Ross Field for Homecoming. Saturday, Oct. 5, Wesleyan travels to Frostburg State University for a 1 p.m. kickoff.
