LIVINGSTON, Ala. - The University of West Alabama Football team improved to 8-1 on the year after a dominant 31-6 road win over the Shorter Hawks on Saturday afternoon.
A near perfect second half from No.12 UWA (8-1, 4-1 GSC) carried them to their 25-point win over Shorter (3-5) as the Tigers held the Hawks to 88 total yards of offense in the half to put a stamp on a clean overall performance.
"Excited to get the road victory," said head coach Brett Gilliland. "I felt like we started slow and finally asserted ourselves in the third quarter. I was proud of the second half and how we played as a team in it."
West Alabama started fast to begin the game, scoring on their first drive as Spencer Arceneaux found Khris Binion for a 29-yard touchdown reception. A kickoff blunder from the Hawks forced Shorter to start their next drive inside their own 10-yard line. The Hawks struggled to move up the field, punting the ball back to the Tigers but UWA couldn't do much on their next offensive possession. West Alabama's Elijah Guyton, who served as the Tigers' punter on Saturday, punted from his own end zone, resulting in a short field with Shorter taking over around the Tigers' 35-yard line. The Hawks took full advantage of the short field as Josh Brown scrambled to find the end zone. Cody Sigler blocked Shorter's extra point attempt as UWA took a 7-6 lead into the second quarter.
Shorter's offense continued to find success to begin the second as the Hawks drove the ball down to West Alabama's four-yard line. With a chance to take the lead, Shorter rolled the dice and decided to go for a fourth-and-one where Delawrence Butler and Austen Cosby stuffed Josh Brown for no gain, forcing a turnover on downs. After their big fourth down stand, the Tigers couldn't move the ball on their next possession as they were forced to punt the ball right back to Shorter. This is where the game shifted as the UWA defense began to stifle the Hawks' offense. The Tigers forced a three-and-out, setting up great field position for Arceneaux and the offense where they took full advantage. West Alabama marched down the field, with Arceneaux finding Caeleb Bass in the end zone for a 14-yard touchdown to cap off a seven-play, 61-yard drive. Up 14-6 late in the second, the UWA defense held Shorter scoreless for the remainder of the half as the Tigers took an eight-point lead into the break.
West Alabama outgained Shorter 174-154 in the first half while the Hawks gained one more first down.
To begin the second half, UWA forced a quick Shorter punt before their offense got back to work. Arceneaux and Bry Webb surgically moved the Tigers up the field until the Junior Quarterback registered his third passing touchdown of the night, connecting with Bass again to extend West Alabama's lead to 21-6. After UWA's third score of the day, the teams traded punts to send us to the fourth quarter.
Up by 15 points to begin the fourth, the Tigers kept their foot on the gas as Areceneaux and Silas Thompson connected for an explosive 57-yard touchdown to give West Alabama a 28-6 lead. On Shorter's next drive, Trevon Lambert recorded one of his 2.5 sacks on the day, pushing his season total to a conference-high 9.0. Lambert's sack forced the Hawks to bring out their punt unit for the seventh time where the Tigers took over on their own 25-yard line. UWA went on to put together a 10-play, 52-yard drive with Elijah Guyton putting through a 41-yard field goal to make it a 31-6 game, and that's where the scoring ended as West Alabama took home a 25-point road victory.
Arceneaux threw a career-high four touchdowns and 246 yards on 16 completions while Bass recorded two touchdowns and 45 receiving yards on three catches. Defensively, Lamar Gray led the way with a career-high 11 tackles while Naylor registered nine.
West Alabama will wrap up their regular season next Saturday when they welcome the Erskine Flying Fleet to Tiger Stadium on Senior Day for a 1:00 PM matchup.
