Talk about a much-needed statement win.
The University of West Florida football team defended home field in a big way on Saturday, topping nationally-ranked Delta State, 40-28, at PenAir Field to not only return to a winning record overall, but to make things interesting as far as the Gulf South Conference goes.
A end-of-first-half touchdown pass from Marcus Stokes to Jakobe Quillen with just 20.7 seconds left arguably turned the momentum in the Argos’ favor. That score put UWF up by two possessions.
“That was a nice throw, I’m not going to lie,” Stokes said after the game. “That got me feeling good going into halftime.”
With Delta State receiving the second-half kickoff, going up by two touchdowns was crucial. Especially after a lull doomed UWF late in the third quarter as the Statesmen scored back-to-back touchdowns in the frame. Delta State scored late in the third on a short five-play, 27-yard drive after Stokes was hit by a defender and wound up fumbling the football.
The Statesmen scored on a 1-yard run with 1:30 left in the third, then scored again on a 1-yard run from quarterback Cole Kirk with 11:31 left in the game, capping off a 58-yard drive. At that point, Delta State reclaimed the lead, 28-27, after UWF missed an extra point earlier in the contest.
UWF quickly responded, however. The Argos needed just one play to take the lead and never relinquish it after that. Stokes connected with Corey Scott for a 70-yard touchdown pass, where Scott pulled a double-move route and found himself a couple steps behind the Delta State defense and then had nothing but green grass in front of him.
Minutes later, it was Stokes and Scott again with 5:46 left on a 26-yard pass to seal the game.
“(Scott’s) a pretty good player,” Stokes said with a little grin.
“They showed me – and confirmed to me – what they have in their chest: a big heart. I know they love playing football together. That showed down the stretch. We got aggressive on play call,” UWF head coach Kaleb Nobles said. “These guys did a great job on a double-move. They did a phenomenal job connecting.”
The Argos’ defense allowed just 118 yards rushing, the fewest Delta State has earned this season. Three of the Statesmen’s touchdowns did come on the ground, with two 1-yard rushes on third down. The outlier was a 66-yard run from Kelvin Smith in the first quarter to erase the shutout for Delta State.
That defensive effort was led by Traevon Mitchell, who posted a team-high seven tackles. Four of those were for a loss of 12 yards, and he also recorded a sack for a loss of six yards. Mitchell, a defensive lineman, broke up a pass late in the game to stop any Delta State momentum.
“A lot of really good players on that defensive line that have done good stuff. Excited about them and how they answered the call with limited depth,” Nobles said, noting there were a few injuries to the defensive line and linebackers entering the game. “The defense did a great job of winning the line of scrimmage. We know that Delta State is very good on offense, and they’re going to hang their hat on running the football. I told our defensive staff – I can pull up the text messages – if they can’t run the ball, we’ve got a good shot of winning this game.”
“The game was all on technique. We knew what (Delta State) was going to run. It was about reaction time,” Mitchell said. “It all came good.”
UWF (3-2, 2-1 Gulf South Conference) hands Delta State its first conference loss of the season. The Argos, just outside of the national rankings this past week, are sure to have a shot at being back in the top 25 teams of Division II football after Saturday’s win.
The Argos head on the road next week for another GSC game, going to Chowan in North Carolina for a 12 p.m. CST (1 p.m. EST) game. Chowan (2-3, 1-1 GSC) enters the game fresh off a thrilling 31-27 win over Shorter – now a non-conference game – on Saturday.
“Obviously I want these guys to enjoy this game, a very big win. It’s important to enjoy the fruits of their labor. But, obviously, we’re still in the GSC schedule,” Nobles said. “We know we have to show up and play well, and play our best. We’ve got a long stretch of games left. We’ve got to play well and keep doing what we do.”
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: UWF football beats Delta State in premier Gulf South Conference game
