MIAMI, Fla. — WKU Football’s defense recorded seven sacks and the Hilltoppers scored 27 unanswered points to defeat FIU by a score of 34-19 on Saturday night. With the win, WKU improved to 3-4 overall and 2-1 in Conference USA action.
Quarterback Bailey Zappe completed 39-of-49 passes for 368 yards and three touchdowns – a 32-yarder to Mitchell Tinsley to end the first half and two to Jerreth Sterns in the second half – while running back Adam Cofield added an eight-yard scoring rush. On the other side of the ball, Marcus Bragg, Demetrius Cain, Nicholas Days, Juwuan Jones, DeAngelo Malone, Michael Pitts and Darius Shipp each had one sack.
Kicker Brayden Narveson made field goals of 23 and 26 yards and was 4-for-4 on extra points. Punter John Haggerty III punted five times and averaged 48 yards per kick to help give the Hilltoppers a field position advantage all night.
WKU’s upcoming game will be the school’s Homecoming celebration on Saturday, October 30. Visiting Charlotte (4-3 overall, 2-1 C-USA) comes to town for the 3 p.m. kickoff at Houchens-Smith Stadium.
Postgame Quotes
Head coach Tyson Helton
Opening statement:
“Going on the road and getting a win is always hard. We talked all week of having that complete team win, I thought we got really close to that tonight. Defense had another really good night, that was great to see. Offensively, early we struggled, they were playing drop eight coverage and I thought our offense did a good job of slowing that down, started to look at them, mix in the run more and we started to have success when we did that. So those are things smart football teams need to do to win. I was happy with the overall performance of everybody and can’t say enough about the defense and their performance.”
On the defense making numerous big plays once again:
“I think our defense is doing a really good job of changing up the looks and schemes and making it hard on offenses and bringing pressures from all over the place and getting the best players in the right place, I think that is really big. I’m really excited about our defense, back-to-back weeks having good performances. It’s going to take a big one next week, Charlotte is a really good offense so that will be a big test for us defensively. But it was good to put all those pieces together tonight.”
On the mood in the locker room after back-to-back wins:
“It’s right. It’s right and it’s always been right. But winning games solves a lot of problems and when you win games, like we have done back-to-back weeks, it gives you momentum. Now you get to go home, get to play a tough Charlotte team, you want to have that momentum and good look in your eye, and you want to feel good about what you are doing. Our locker room is in a really good place.”
How to Follow the Hilltoppers: For complete information on WKU Hilltopper Football, follow the program via social media @WKUFootball on Twitter and Facebook.
-@WKUSports-
