The Western Carolina University football team opened the season with a big victory against last year’s SoCon champion, Samford, with a score of 30-7.
The Catamounts have won their first conference game of the 2023 season, and are looking to build off of this win and take their momentum into next week’s away game against Eastern Kentucky on Sept. 16.
The Bulldogs scored the first touchdown of the game, but the Western Carolina defense stopped them from ever scoring again.
A momentum shift in the game occurred with 11:38 remaining in the second quarter when Va Lealaimatafao forced a fumble by Samford quarterback, Michael Heirs.
“It feels great. We played well and got after the ball. The defense flew around, and our offense played fast,” Lealaimatafao said after the game.
Following this play the game was delayed for five hours because of lightning. The game started back up again at 8:40 p.m. The score was 14-7 heading into the second quarter, after the lightning delay.
“We just tried to stay focused and keep our minds on the task at hand. We all knew the game was important and that we had to bring the energy when we came back out,” Tyler Smith, a senior for the Catamounts said.
Western Carolina did exactly that and did not lose their momentum after a long time of sitting around, waiting to play, and taking the game away from Samford.
Head Coach Kerwin Bell was beyond proud of his team and grateful to the Western Carolina community for their support.
“I’m just excited. I loved everything about the night. Our team was so resilient. We went in there for that long delay, and I think that you could have seen when we came out to warm up that we were the team that wanted to finish this game,” Bell said.
The next home game is Saturday, Sept. 23. The Catamounts will take on Charleston Southern at 2:30 p.m. for Family Weekend.
