West Liberty running back Hunter Patterson applies a stiff arm on a rush attempt Saturday against Wheeling University in both teams’ season finales inside West Family Stadium. Patterson tied the school record for rushing touchdowns in a game (5) and total touchdowns in a game (6).
WEST LIBERTY — West Liberty head coach Roger Waialae has coached the Hilltoppers for over 20 years, but even with his decades of experience, the veteran coach managed a ‘first-ever’ in his final game before retirement.
“It’s the first time in my career, and I’ve been coaching a long time, that we said ‘let them score.’” Waialae said. “I said, we can score to win the game. And we believed that– the offensive staff, you know, ‘coach, we need to let them score.’
“And then we were trying to run plays so they didn’t have any time on the clock and we scored with eight seconds left,”
The Hilltoppers’ Kohl Meisman tossed a go-ahead, three-yard touchdown pass to Osama Hurst with just eight seconds left, the final score in a game that seemed, at times, like there never would be a final score.
West LIberty won Saturday’s season finale against rival Wheeling University 68-67 inside West Family Stadium, a high-flying shootout which contained in it multiple historic statlines.
Saturday was also the final game for Waialae, the school announcing their longtime head coach’s impending retirement on Nov. 10. After the game, though, Waialae shifted the focus from himself.
“I’m just happy for the players,” Waialae said. “They’ve worked so hard.”
“I’m just happy for the kids. This has never been about me. It’s always been about them graduating, growing, maturing, all those things. Being successful, you know, the players that came back today that played for us, some of them off the first team in 2005, that’s what’s made it all worth it.”
Hilltoppers running back Hunter Patterson, an Oak Glen alum, tied the West Liberty single-season record for rushing touchdowns in a game with five, and total touchdowns in a game with six.
Patterson had 201 rushing yards.
“We know what we have to do,” Waialae began. “We’re not dumb as coaches. We know what we have to do to move the ball. We got to get him in space. And sometimes he created his own space today. He’s a special player with only playing two years at running back. He’s in there in the top three or four that we’ve ever had here, not only as a player, but a person, a student, an athlete, all those things. And so you got to commend him and his family. I thought we played well up front today.
We made some changes, but we were able to obviously score 68 points.”
After Wheeling University scored on a one-yard rush by Steven Mitchel after quarterback Landon Lutz tossed a 35-yard pass to Jordan Kaiser to get down to the one yard-line. With 1:50 on the clock, West Liberty had enough time left for one more scoring drive.
Lutz and Kaiser were electric for Wheeling. Lutz finished with 339 yards and two touchdowns on the day. Kaiser caught both, finishing with 112 yards on six grabs. Mitchell rushed for 92 yards and three touchdowns.
“Two really good college football teams playing in an outstanding college football game where neither team wanted to lose,” Wheeling head coach Zac Bruney said. “And it came down to one drive, one play, and, you know, they had one more possession and they did a hell of a job. And our guys did too.
“I’m really proud of our team and congratulations to Coach Waialae. If any guy deserves to win one like that, he does. Because he’s put a lot of time in– 30-plus years into one institution is a rarity nowadays. So hats off to them and hats off to their team. They made one more play, they made one more drive than we did, but I’m really proud of our team and, you know, we just ran out of time.”
West Liberty’s Meisman threw for 502 yards and four touchdowns, becoming just the fourth quarterback in program history to throw for over 500 yards.
West Liberty finishes the season at 3-8, 3-5 in MEC play. Wheeling finishes at 6-5, 5-3 in-conference.
