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 Lamont Seward had five receptions for 122 yards, including an 84-yard touchdown, in Western's 47-3 win over West Virginia Tech. |
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Sept. 14, 2002
Cullowhee, N.C. - Western Carolina (2-1) scored on each of its first six possessions en route to a 47-3 victory over West Virginia Tech (1-1) Saturday night at E.J. Whitmire Stadium/Bob Waters Field. The contest, played in heavy rain, was the home opener for the Catamounts and gave first-year head coach Kent Briggs, a former WCU player and assistant coach, his first home win.
Western Carolina rolled up 529 yards of total offense, compared to 195 for the Golden Bears. WCU quarterbacks Brian Gaither (9-of-15) and Pat Cilento (10-of-16) combined for nearly 370 passing yards. On the other side of the ball, Western's defense held WVU Tech to only 33 yards rushing on 31 attempts and only allowed the Bears to convert on 2-of-18 third down opportunities.
The Catamounts were led by two rushing touchdowns by junior Fred Boateng, who missed the first two contests after having scar tissue removed from his knee, and redshirt freshman John Bush, while Lamont Seward and Michael Banks each tallied over 100 receiving yards.
Seward's 28-yard reception from Gaither set up Western's first score. From the WVU Tech 20, junior Manny DeShauteurs ran the ball over left end, broke a few tackles and scored WCU's first TD. The Bears answered with a 15-play, 59-yard drive, capped by a 38-yard Caleb Hunter field goal, to make the scored 7-3.
One play after Tech's field goal, Seward and Gaither once again connected to setup Western's second score. This time the juniors paired up on an 84-yard scoring play, which is the ninth-longest pass in WCU history. The Cats would go up 17-3 on a 31-yard Chris Vought field goal, and, after an impressive 13-play, 73-yard drive with Cilento at the helm, would increase their lead to 24-3 thanks to a one-yard run by Bush on the first play of the second quarter.
After the WCU kickoff, Catamount junior Otis Powell intercepted an Eric Smith pass on the first play, which wold eventually lead to a 43-yard Vought field goal to give the Cats a 27-3 advantage. The kick was Vought's career long.
A 50-yard Gaither to Banks pass setup Western's fourth touchdown of the half. After a 10-yard DeShauteurs rush, Boateng had an 11-yard run and a nine-yards TD run to cap the drive.
Boateng scored his second TD late in the third quarter, this time from six yards out, to give the Cats a 40-3 lead. And, with just over a minute remaining, Bush burst nearly untouched up the middle for a 12-yard score and provide the final 47-3 margin.
For the Catamounts, Banks finished the game with five catches for 106 yards. He now has 153 career receptions, which moves the senior to fifth on the WCU all-time list and 10th on the Southern Conference all-time list. With Seward adding five catches for 122 yards, the pair each went over the 100 mark in the same game for the first time since the final game of the 2000 season. Boateng reached a milestone as well. With his two scores tonight, he has 20 for his career, which is sixth on the WCU rushing TD list and ninth on the WCU TD's scored overall list.
WVU Tech quarterback Eric Smith did not play in the second half due to an injury. He did put up impressive numbers in his two quarters however, completing 18-of-31 passes for 147 yards. Backup Jeremy Harmon would only complete 2-of-13 passes for 17 yards. Roderick Thomas paced the Golden Bear receiving corps with eight catches for 57 yards.
Western Carolina will begin league play next Saturday (Sept. 21) with a 2 pm contest in Charleston, S.C., versus The Citadel. West Virginia Tech will also return to action next Saturday at Southern Illinois.
