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Sports
September 9, 2014
Top-ofthe-line Tailgating
FOOTBALL
MATT HAMILTON Sports Editor @MattHamiltonTU
Mountaineers out-gain Tigers by almost 500 yards in 54-0 loss MATT HAMILTON Sports Editor @MattHamiltonTU
It wasn’t the dream scenario that Towson had experienced last season with its win over UConn. In front of 56,414 fans, West Virginia made sure Towson did not complete its second straight upset over a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent. The Mountaineers outgained the Tigers 606-122 en route to a 54-0 win, snapping the Tigers’ 10-game road winning streak at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, West Virginia on Saturday night. Head Coach Rob Ambrose said he learned a lot from his team, despite the lopsided loss. “We’ve cleared up some of the fog of the fakers, the guys that talk the talk but don’t walk the walk,” Ambrose said. “Now we can kind of cut some of those guys out and they won’t see the field. We’ll play the guys that love football and love each other.” West Virginia wasted no time establishing its fast-paced offense, moving
down the field to complete a 13-play, 68-yard drive that put it up 7-0 just 4:04 into the game. Running back Wendell Smallwood ended the drive with a rushing touchdown and Trickett went 6-for-7 with 47 yards. Trickett completed 35 of his 40 passes for 348 yards and two touchdowns, while junior quarterback Connor Frazier went 7-for-17 for 60 yards and was replaced by senior Joe Brennan later in the game. Ambrose said that although Brennan saw time tonight, the job is still Frazier’s for the future. “[There is] no competition at all,” Ambrose said. “I didn’t think Connor was seeing [the field] all that well. Truth be told, I don’t think there wasn’t a guy that made this trip that didn’t get on the field tonight. I wanted every one of them to experience what this was. I wanted it to be personal.” The Tigers couldn’t find a response on their first drive, as Frazier was sacked on second down, leading to a 3rd-and-20 situation. Sophomore run-
Symone Garvett/ The Towerlight
Towson’s defensive struggles from their first game against Central Connecticut State carried over to West Virginia, as they gave up 54 points to the Mountaineers in front of 56,414 fans Saturday night. ning back Darius Victor ran 15 yards on third down, but the Tigers were forced to punt away the drive. Mountaineers wide receiver Jordan Thompson took the ensuing punt to the Tigers’ 49-yard line. That kick started a drive that got them to the Tigers one-yard line. The Tigers defense held strong for three downs, forcing an 18-yard field goal that made it 10-0 with 3:26 left in the first quarter. Towson took the next drive to the West Virginia 46-yard line, but Frazier was stopped on fourth down and the home team took over with good field position. However, West Virginia couldn’t cash in on the opportunity, as kicker Josh Lambert missed a 34-yard field goal to keep the score at 10-0. On the next drive, the Mountaineers forced a Tigers’ fourth down at its 44-yard line. However, a fake punt
File photo by Abby Murphy/ The Towerlight
Quarterback Connor Frazier struggled early against West Virginia, and was reventually replaced by senior Joe Brennan, although Ambrose said the job is Frazier’s going forward.
backfired and the Mountaineers took over in Tigers’ territory once again. This time, West Virginia made Towson pay for the failed conversion. Trickett led a nine-play, 44-yard drive that ended with a rushing touchdown by running back Rushel Shell to make it 17-0 with 9:04 left in the half. After another Tigers punt, the Mountaineers put together an eightplay, 64-yard drive led by Trickett’s 42 yards through the air. The drive ended with a great, bobbling catch by wide receiver Mario Alford to make it 24-0. Towson was forced to punt once again, and West Virginia took over at its 45-yard line. The home team notched an eight-play, 55-yard drive that ended with a Trickett rushing touchdown to give West Virginia at 31-0 lead at half. The second half opened with much of the same, as the Tigers punted away their first possession and the Mountaineers made them pay. This time, it was a six-play, 75-yard drive highlighted by a Trickett touchdown pass to Thompson to make it 38-0. Towson punted its next drive away, but the defense got its second stop on the ensuing drive. However, Brennan and his offense took over at the fouryard line, which proved difficult when Brennan was called for intentional grounding and forced a safety to boost the deficit to 40-0. The Mountaineers speedy defense held the Tigers to a 0-for-3 mark on fourth down and 4-for-15 on third down. “It’s not like I didn’t know [the speed] was coming,” Ambrose said. “We got who we got and they got who they got. They’re fast.” West Virginia tacked on two more touchdowns before the end of the game, both with Trickett on the sidelines. Towson will look for revenge next weekend, as it travels to Dover, Delaware to face the Delaware State Hornets. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m.
And I thought Towson tailgates were wild. My trip to West Virginia to cover the Towson football game was certainly eventful, and it all started at a frat party with a few new friends. It was five hours before the game and, by my estimation, 30,000 or so fans had already lined the parking lot adjacent to Milan Puskar Stadium, tailgating for the first home game of the year. To put that in perspective, that’s almost four times as many fans that showed up at Johnny Unitas Stadium for Towson’s first game all packed into one parking lot, five hours before game time. There were probably Towson fans sleeping five hours before game time. I stood on the third-floor balcony of an apartment complex and looked at the Mountaineers fans, all dressed in yellow or blue, filtering down the street to the stadium. People at the party would scream, “Let’s go!” and the fans on the street, without thinking, would utter “Mountaineers.” It’s this type of tradition that Towson just doesn’t have at this point. West Virginia has been an established program for as long as Towson has been a Division-I program. Also, there’s nothing else to do in West Virginia, so residents seem to gravitate toward football. “This is our professional team, since there are none out here and were not going to cheer for the Steelers,” one of the fraternity brothers told me. There were parties at every apartment complex and even on the front porch of some houses. And get this: I didn’t see a single police car during my five-hour tailgate fiesta. It was at the point when they were pouring beer down three stories into someone’s mouth that I realized: This is a real football environment. The town turned into a celebration of West Virginia for that day, and even older residents joined in (like the old man taking shots of Jose Cuervo). Heck, some residents sold out their front lawns so that more people could find parking. It was that kind of community feel that I experienced wherever my travels took me in Morgantown. Can Towson ever create this gameday experience? Probably not. It’s not that the Tigers can’t be a strong enough program or the fact that our students don’t care as much as they should. Read more at thetowerlight.com