CHARLOTTE – After a surprising blowout win on the road at Rice last weekend, the Charlotte 49ers were hoping to build momentum going into their last three games of the season. The visiting Western Kentucky Hilltoppers had other ideas, and quarterback Austin Reed’s six-touchdown performance ensured that the Charlotte hope was short-lived as the visitors walked out of Charlotte’s Richardson Stadium with a 59-7 win on Saturday afternoon. 

Photo Credit: Ed Conway

Charlotte tried to get their offense moving in the second half, going seventy-five yards in ten plays, resulting in an acrobatic grab by Elijah Spencer in the end zone to get the 49ers on the board for the first time on the afternoon. WKU immediately responded, scoring in four plays, with Reed finding his sixth different touchdown target, Michael Mathison, to extend the lead again. The Hilltoppers added a field goal in the fourth quarter and put an exclamation point on the game with a forty-two-yard Anthony Brackenridge pick-six.

Western Kentucky’s quarterback Austin Reed finished with 409 yards and six touchdowns on the day. Backup quarterback Darius Ocean added a late score to make up the final margin.

Next Week

Charlotte (2-8, 1-5 CUSA) is on the road at Middle Tennessee next Saturday before returning home for the final game of the 49ers’ season on November 19th against Louisiana Tech. Western Kentucky hosts Rice in their home finale before hitting the road for the final two weeks of the season.

BOCA RATON – Coming into the Boca Raton Bowl, App State knew they would have their hands full trying to slow down the air raid offense of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and their record-setting quarterback Bailey Zappe. The Hilltoppers and Zappe were as good as advertised offensively and throttled the Mountaineers for 639 yards in a 59-38 rout on Saturday afternoon at FAU Stadium.

Opening the game, Western Kentucky sought to impose its will on the App State defense and did so to the tune of an eight-play, seventy-four-yard drive with a one-yard scoring pass from Bailey Zappe to Jerreth Sterns opening the scoring for the day. After a turnover in the red zone ended App State's first drive of the day, a defensive stop gave the Mountaineers another chance to even the score late in the quarter and Malik Williams's thirty-six-yard touchdown pass from Chase Brice kicked off a fireworks-filled end of the first quarter.

On the next play of the game, Zappe and Mitchell Tinsley showed why they led Conference USA and the nation in passing offense with Tinsley taking a slant across the middle and racing seventy-five yards to the house to retake the lead, 14-7. The Mountaineers attacked quickly as well with Jalen Virgil's sixty-yard catch and run five plays later leaving the two teams tied at 14 going into the second quarter.

Although the second quarter did not contain the same explosive plays as the first, it was still a momentous quarter nonetheless. Each team traded field goals in what seemed to be big defensive stops for both squads. The two quarterbacks continued their race to see which arm would rule the day. App State's Chase Brice added another score in the quarter, a thirty-three-yard pass to Dashaun Davis, but the end of the second quarter belonged to Western Kentucky's Bailey Zappe. The graduate transfer from Houston Baptist continued his assault on the NCAA record books, breaking the single-season passing yards record and tying the single-season passing touchdowns record. He would go on to break the record in the second half.

App State looked to make it right in the second half, but a series of miscues started to put the game out of reach fairly quickly. A promising drive to open the half was lost to a turnover after a replay indicated a fumble on a run play at the fourteen-yard line. One snap later, Western Kentucky's Noah Whittington broke free for the eighty-six-yard score to give the Hilltoppers a two-score lead. Forcing a punt on the next App State drive, Zappe broke the passing touchdown record with a two-yard scoring pass midway through the third quarter on a drive that was extended by two App State penalties.

The Mountaineers refused to yield, though, and responded with their own one-play drive, a sixty-two-yard strike from Chase Brice to Christian Wells, but it was not enough to bridge the gap on the afternoon. Late in the quarter, the Mountaineers did find a reason to celebrate as Brice broke Armanti Edwards's App State twelve-year-ole program record for single-season passing yards. 

Camerun Peoples crossed the 100-yard rushing mark to lead the Mountaineers on the ground to go with Chase Brice's 317 yards through the air to lead the Mountaineers' offense. Kaiden Smith led the defense with ten tackles.

The loss was the first in program history for App State since the Mountaineers transitioned to FBS in 2013. App State finished the 2021 campaign with a record of 10-4, the third time in four seasons that the Mountaineers logged double-digit wins.

Western Kentucky thought they were going to able to strike first on this rare Sunday afternoon college football game, getting all the way to the one-yard line, but Charlotte defensive standouts Markees Watts and Timmy Horne combined to stop the Hilltopper quarterback from punching it in on a quarterback sneak on the fourth down. Unfortunately, for the 49ers, this was the defensive highlight of the day as the visitors were successful in their other three trips to the red zone.

Photo Credit: Ed Conway

The Charlotte offense still struggled on their second drive of the game, but bad turned to worse as a bobbled snap on a punt attempt led to a short scoop and score by the Hilltoppers’ AJ Brathwaite Jr. and the visitors found themselves with a 10-0 lead sixteen seconds into the second quarter. The Hilltoppers added another unconventional touchdown near the end of the half, as 6’1”, 300 lb. offensive lineman Jordan Meredith recovered a fumble in the end zone to give Western Kentucky a 17-0 lead going into the halftime break.

Charlotte finally found some offense in the third quarter, taking the second-half kickoff and marching seventy-five yards down the field in ten plays, resulting in a five-yard scoring pass from Chris Reynolds to Micaleous Elder. It was the first of two scoring passes for Reynolds on the day, the other coming along with a great grab by former East Lincoln standout Cameron Dollar in the fourth quarter. Elder hauled in another score late in the game from backup quarterback Dom Shoffner, but this wasn’t enough as the Hilltoppers put two more scores on the board to keep the game out of reach.

One bright spot for the Charlotte defense occurred in the first half as defensive back Ben Deluca became the program’s all-time leader in tackles, breaking the record held by Jeff Gemmell since last season.

Noteworthy Notes

Western Kentucky had a perfectly balanced offense, rushing and passing for 218 yards.

The time of possession for the game was almost balanced as well, with only a 2 second differential between the two teams. Charlotte possessed the ball for 30:01 with Western Kentucky possessing for 29.59.

Backup QB Dom Shoffner has completed two passes this season. Both were touchdowns.

Up Next

Charlotte (2-4, 2-2) travels to Huntington, WV on Friday for a matchup with Marshall (7-1, 4-2) while Western Kentucky’s season is complete.