WEST LIBERTY – It was a great homecoming for a former Ohio Valley high school quarterback Saturday, but not a very happy homecoming for West Liberty.

Deadlocked at 21 at the half, Javon Davis, who quarterbacked Steubenville Big Red to an Ohio Division IV state championship in 2017, threw two of his career-high five touchdown passes after the halftime festivities and the Wheeling University defense pitched a shutout in a 42-21 doubling up of the Hilltoppers (4-4, 3-4) before a huge crowd at sun-soaked West family Stadium in Mountain East Conference action.

Davis began his collegiate career at IUP before transferring closer to home over the summer.

“It’s surreal. It was a great atmosphere here today,” Davis, who passed for 313 yards on 16 of 24, said. “This was a great place to have my career-high, but the important thing is we won the game.”

Davis connected with Lowell Patron on an out-and-up from 27 yards out to get the second half score fest started. St. Clairsville graduate Matt Greenwood was perfect on the fourth of his half-a-dozen PAT kicks and it was 28-21 Cardinals with 3:30 left in the third quarter.

With the Hilltoppers facing a third-and-8 near midfield, Rudy Garcia’s pass over the middle was picked off by Jayvon Johnson who rumbled 48 yards to paydirt as the margin increased to 35-21 with just 33 ticks left on the third-quarter clock.

On the third play of the fourth quarter, Johnson once again stepped in front of a Garcia aerial and returned it to the Hilltoppers’ 42.

It took just four plays to reach the end zone as Davis speared Chris Canaday on a 13-yard slant for six. Greenwood capped the scoring at the 12 minutes left to play.

“At halftime we just needed to keep coming at them,” Davis said of the second-half surge. “That’s what we did offensively and our defense stepped up and made plays.”

Wheeling head coach Zac Bruney praised both Davis and Johnson for their ability to make plays.

“He played his best game in probably his biggest game. I know it meant a lot to him,” Bruney said of Davis. “”He knew a lot of the guys he was going up against from this area and he has worked extremely hard to get better, and he has only gotten better as the season has progressed. He’s playing really, really well.

“Jayvon came up big after he got dinged up a little bit,” Bruney continued. “He was huge. They were running the ball with (Quincy) Wimbush behind a huge offensive line, but we made some adjustments at halftime and jumped a couple of routes. Jayvon is a senior and we’ve got a few of them now. I think our senior leadership came through in the second half.”

Bruney said he couldn’t be happier for his team.

“I’m proud of our guys. It was a dogfight as it usually is between these two rivals,” Bruney added. “We made more plays than they did in the second half. I told our guys at halftime to be more consistent and we were in the second half in all three phases.”

In the first half, Davis teamed with Canaday on a 17-yard TD to open the scoring and then found him for 57 after a Justin Kaplan 30-yard field goal. Davis also connected with former Wheeling Park product Stevie Mitchell from 29 yards out. Mitchell outleaped a West Liberty defender in the end zone to make a highlight reel catch.

The Cardinals scores came on a 27-yard pass from Garcia to Chris Charles; a 5-yard scamper by Wimbush and a 27-yard three-pointer by Kaplan.

Wheeling treks Concord on Saturday for a noon start. The Cardinals, Mountain Lions and Notre Dame College are all 5-2 in conference play. Meanwhile, West Liberty gasses up the bus for an 8-hour trip to UNC-Pembroke (4-4, 4-3) for a 2 p.m. contest.

Wheeling 42, West Liberty 21

Wheeling 14 7 14 7 – 42

West Liberty 11 10 0 0 – 21

W-Patron 17 pass from Jav. Davis (Greenwood kick)

WL-Kaplan 30 FG

W-Canaday 57 pass from Jav. Davis (Greenwood kick)

WL-Charles 27 pass from Garcia (Turner run)

WL-Kaplan 27 FG

W-Mitchell 29 pass from Jav. Davis (Greenwood kick)

WL-Wimbush 5 run (Kaplan kick)

W-Patron 27 pass from Jav. Davis (Greenwood kick)

W-Jay. Davis 48 INT return (Greenwood kick)

W-Canaday 13 pass from Jav. Davis (Greenwood kick)

RUSHING: Wheeling 25-112 (Alli 10-61, Young 6-46, White 2-14, Davis 3-8, Palmer 2-(-15). West Liberty 46-155-td (Wimbush 26-11-td, Barmer 4-26, Richards 1-18, Diven 4-4, Garcia 11-(-4)

PASSING: Wheeling 16-24-313-5tds (all by Davis). West Liberty 17-36-213-td-3ints (Garcia 15-27-174-td-3ints, Diven 2-9-39)

RECEIVING: Wheeling 16-313-5tds (Canaday 5-114-2tds, Keenan 4-22, Patron 3-59-2tds, Alli 1-59, Griffin 1-32, Mitchell 1-29, Davis 1-(-2). West Liberty 17-213-td (Charles 7-85-td, Griffin 3-50, Wimbush 2-23, Bober 2-23, Harvey 2-19, Glover 1-12)

FIRST DOWNS: Wheeling 15. West Liberty 24

FUMBLES: Wheeling 1-0. West Liberty 4-0

PENALTIES: Wheeling 7-57. West Liberty 6-44