PALM BAY, Fla. – Mark Cato passed for 361 yards and two touchdowns to lead Florida Tech to a 24-13 Gulf South Conference football victory over West Alabama Saturday at Florida Tech Panther Stadium.
The win improved the Panthers to 3-3 overall, 2-1 in GSC play. West Alabama lost for the second straight time, falling to 4-2 overall and 0-2 in league play.
"We got off to a slow start again and we shouldn't have," UWA head coach
Brett Gilliland said. "Just one thing here or there … it should have been a better start.
"Starting from the top down we have to do the things we need to do to get better," Gilliland said. "Part of it is we have been playing some good football teams, but there have been things there for us and we haven't been taking them."
Florida Tech rang up 474 total yards and West Alabama had 348, 213 of those in the second half. The Tigers were down 17-3 at the half and got down 24-6 before
Harry Satterwhite found
Daryl Collins on an 11-yard scoring pass to cut the lead to the final 24-13 margin with 10:36 to play.
For the second consecutive game West Alabama put together a strong fourth quarter, and for the second straight time, it was too little too late. Satterwhite guided UWA to 132 yards in the final period and the Tigers were on the FIT 7-yard line when time expired.
Trevor Sands got the Panthers on the scoreboard first with a 9-yard run, giving FIT a 7-0 lead with 4:23 left in the first quarter.
Florida Tech set the Tigers up deep in Panther territory late in the first period when Jaaron Barrett fumbled a
Jordan Ikner punt and
Jared Adair recovered at the FIT 22-yard line. UWA came away with no points after
Garrett Mattix missed a 22-yard field goal on the first play of the second quarter.
Cato hooked up with Gabe Hughes on Florida Tech's first play of the second quarter for an 80-yard touchdown pass to put the Panthers up 14-0.
Even though the Panthers led by 14 at the half, turnovers forced by the West Alabama defense stopped two FIT drives deep in Tiger territory to keep UWA close.
Dwight Herlong recovered a Panther fumble at the 13-yard line in the first quarter and
Taderion Myhand picked off a Cato pass at the goal line in the second period.
West Alabama got on the board with 29 seconds left in the half on a 25-yard field goal by
Jordan Ikner, who also kicked a 24-yarder with 1:20 left in the third quarter.
Cato hooked up with T.J. Lowder for a 60-yard touchdown pass on the first play for the Panthers following the Ikner field goal, giving FIT a 24-6 lead with 1:06 left in the third period. The bomb was Florida Tech's final points.
FIT's Trevor Sand rushed for 115 yards on 20 carries to lead all rushers. Kenny Johnston, Wayne Saunders and Lowder had three receptions each for the Panthers. Hughes finished with two receptions for 101 yards.
Dezmon Huntley lead UWA rushing with 49 yards on 10 carries.
Javae Swindle picked up 35 on 11 carries, leaving him 21 yards shy of the UWA career rushing record.
Satterfield completed 15-of-30 passes for 170 yards. Collins had six receptions for 66 yards and
Tyreek Hill three catches for 31 yards.
Quentin Harton led the West Alabama defense with eight total tackles.
Felix Woods had seven tackles, followed by
Brandon Lilly and
Brandon Keel with six each. J.J. Sanders had eight tackles, including two for loss, to lead the Panther defense.
"We have a lot of playmakers, but we need to evaluate how we are trying to get the ball to them," Gilliland said. "We start Sunday getting ready to play a stingy Shorter team."
West Alabama returns to Tiger Stadium to face Shorter on Saturday. Kickoff for the Homecoming game is set for 2 p.m. Florida Tech ventures out of GSC play, traveling to Fort Valley State.
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