GREENVILLE, S.C. – Saturday’s game at Paladin Stadium was sloppy from start to finish, but the Catamounts found a way to win, edging Furman 27-26.
Kicker Bryan McCollum’s 36-yard field goal with four seconds left lifted WCU to a 27-26 victory over Furman. It was the Catamounts’ first road win of 2026 and their first away from Cullowhee since Nov. 22, 2025, at VMI. The Catamounts (4-5, 2-3 Southern Conference) had started this season 0-4 on the road. Furman (2-7, 1-4) has lost six straight.
Neither team was playing for a postseason spot, and the crowd showed it. Both sides of the stadium were less than half full. The game was sloppy for most of the afternoon, and head coach Kerwin Bell did not pretend otherwise.
“We played some bad football on offense and some areas, but you know what? I told our guys, you’ve got to just believe,” Bell said. “They went out and trusted each other, they hung in there, and they made plays that helped us win the game.
Western Carolina’s best stretch came within the first three minutes of the game. On Furman’s first snap, quarterback Trey Smith fumbled, and cornerback Ken Moore Jr. recovered the ball and returned it 15 yards for a touchdown. Right on the next drive, fellow cornerback Jermiyah Douglas intercepted Smith and returned it 37 yards for another score. The Catamounts led 14-0 after 70 seconds without their offense running a play.
The lead did not last. Furman scored 17 straight points, beginning with a 39-yard field goal by Nathan Chapman. Defensive back Connor Adams then returned a blocked punt 7 yards for a touchdown, and Smith broke free for a 79-yard touchdown run to put the Paladins up 17-14 in the second quarter, all because of the stalled drives from the Western Carolina offense.
WCU answered with a 22-yard McCollum field goal to tie it at 17. Quarterback Lex Thomas then hit receiver Jai Boyd in the endzone for a 40-yard touchdown strike with 15 seconds left in the half, sending the Catamounts to the locker room up 24-17.
That was nearly the end of the Western Carolina offense for the game. The Catamounts did not score in the third quarter, and Thomas threw an interception to Furman’s Daco Coleman that set up a 49-yard Chapman field goal. Chapman added another from 39 yards early in the fourth to make the score 24-23. With 1:57 left, he hit a 25-yarder to put Furman ahead 26-24.
Western Carolina’s offense finally came alive when it had to. Starting from its own 25-yard line with less than two minutes left, the Catamounts got a 31-yard catch-and-run from receiver Matthew Keener. Thomas followed with runs of 7 and 14 yards, and running back Josh Perry ran for 9 more. The drive covered 58 yards in nine plays and 1:53. A timeout from WCU with eight seconds left set up McCollum, who sent the kick through the uprights.
Bell credited the offensive line for giving Thomas room to step up in the pocket instead of bailing out of it. He also praised Thomas’ running on the drive and Keener’s playmaking, with praise to McCollum.
“We wanted to move it off the right hand and over to the middle. I know he’s automatic from there,” Bell said. “He’s mentally tough, and I knew he was gonna put it through. He put it right down the middle.”
The box score shows why Bell was not celebrating. Furman outgained Western Carolina 388 yards to 321 and outrushed the Catamounts 268-126. For Furman, Smith ran for 162 yards on 22 carries, but he also threw two interceptions, going 9-for-19 for 120 yards, in addition to a lost fumble.
Thomas finished 22-of-37 for 195 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Boyd led the receivers with four catches for 83 yards. WCU’s defense produced 14 points, and safety Braylon Jones led it with 11 tackles. Furman linebacker Raleigh Herbert led the Paladins with 14 tackles, and defensive lineman Demetrius Baldwin recorded two sacks. Western Carolina punter Thomas Guerrero punted eight times for a 35.0 average inside the 20-yard line. WCU’s offense accounted for just 13 of its 27 points.
Chapman was 4-of-5 on field goals, missing only from 48 yards. Furman’s three turnovers proved to be the difference in the ballgame.
Bell said illness had moved through the locker room this week, leaving the team without several players, including some receivers and specialists. He called it a next-man-up situation and said the depth showed up when it mattered.
“A guy stepped up, and they played really well,” Bell said. “We always talk about our strengths and our numbers, and I felt like we got a lot of really good players behind our starters.”
Even so, Bell said the Catamounts are not meeting their own standard.
“We’ve always prided ourselves on executing at a high level on everything we do, special teams, everything,” he said. “We’re not doing that as a football team. It’s just confidence, I believe. We practice it well, but we’re not taking it to the field.”
The win was Western Carolina’s third straight over Furman. Furman leads all-time, 36-16-2. For the Paladins, the loss continues a difficult final season for head coach Clay Hendrix, who announced earlier this month that he will retire after the year.
Western Carolina has three games left. Bell said he wants to see what the team does with them.
“I know there’s more in this football team where we can play prettier football and win some good games,” he said. ‘I want to finish this year the right way.”
The Catamounts return home to host Wofford on Nov. 7 at 1 p.m. They then hit the road to Samford on Nov. 14 and close the regular season with a home game against The Citadel on Nov. 21.
