Trending
WEST LIBERTY -- Riding a four-game winning streak and sitting alone atop the Mountain East Conference standings, West Liberty takes its high-powered offense on the road Saturday for a conference showdown at West Virginia State.
The Hilltoppers enter the matchup at 4-1 overall and 2-0 in MEC play, marking the program’s best start since 2009. West Virginia State comes into the contest at 1-3 overall and 0-2 in conference play.
West Liberty has won four straight since opening the season with a 30-27 loss to Walsh, including last Saturday’s dramatic 43-42 comeback victory against Concord. The Hilltoppers erased a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter, scoring 15 unanswered points in the final period to secure the victory.
Head coach Chad Salisbury said the comeback showed the fight and grit he wants from his team, but he also knows the Hilltoppers cannot continue relying on late-game rallies.
“I’d like to be called the consistent Hilltoppers,” Salisbury said. “The grit and the fight and all that stuff, that’s exactly what we want from our kids and we’re proud that they do that and they continue to make the plays they need to win. But we need to be better early.”
That will be an important challenge against a West Virginia State team Salisbury expects to bring an athletic and experienced group into Saturday’s matchup.
“They’re very athletic offensively,” Salisbury said. “They have three or four really, really good receivers. They can push the ball down the field.”
The Yellow Jackets are averaging 414.3 yards of total offense per game, including 223.3 passing yards and 191.0 rushing yards. West Virginia State is averaging 26.5 points per game.
Malik Baker leads the Yellow Jackets with 20 receptions for 318 yards and three touchdowns, while Osama Hurst has added 12 catches for 185 yards and three touchdowns. West Virginia State has used three quarterbacks this season, with Kaleb
Jackson coming off a 320-yard passing performance against Fairmont State.
Salisbury also pointed to the Yellow Jackets’ defensive secondary as a major challenge.
“Defensively, I think their DBs are as good as we’ve seen so far,” he said. “They’re going to challenge us. They’re going to get in our face a little bit and they don’t make a lot of mistakes.”
The matchup features one of Division II’s most productive offensive players in West Liberty senior running back Hunter Patterson.
Patterson enters Saturday as the NCAA Division II leader in rushing yards (901), rushing yards per game (180.2), all-purpose yards (1,143) and all-purpose yards per game (228.6). He has scored 13 touchdowns through five games and has found the end zone in every game this season.
Patterson also leads the MEC in rushing yards, rushing yards per game, rushing touchdowns, total touchdowns, scoring, scoring average, all-purpose yards and all-purpose yards per game.
His 901 rushing yards have come on 121 carries, an average of 7.4 yards per attempt. He has added 242 receiving yards on 21 catches and four receiving touchdowns.
Salisbury said Patterson’s production is only part of what makes him valuable to the Hilltoppers.
“The best thing about him, and I keep saying it to people is, it’s -- I don’t know what other words to use other than special,” Salisbury said. “He’s a special football player. He’s a better kid, and that’s the great thing about him.”
While Patterson has been a major part of the Hilltopper offense, West Liberty has shown the ability to attack defenses in a variety of ways.
The Hilltoppers are averaging 394.8 yards per game, with 209.8 coming on the ground and 185.0 through the air. West Liberty has scored 163 points, an average of 32.6 per game.
Senior quarterback Kohl Meisman is coming off the best passing performance of his West Liberty career. Meisman completed 22 of 27 passes for 305 yards and five touchdowns in the comeback against Concord.
The five touchdown passes went to five different receivers, highlighting the balance Salisbury wants from the offense.
“We’re going to make the reads and put the ball, hopefully the ball goes where it’s supposed to go,” Salisbury said. “And then when those kids are there, they make the plays.”
Meisman has completed 77 of 122 passes for 883 yards and 11 touchdowns through five games while posting a 148.7 passing efficiency rating.
The Hilltopper defense has also played a key role in the team’s four-game winning streak.
West Liberty has forced 10 turnovers while losing four and has scored 30 points off those takeaways. The Hilltoppers have recorded 10 sacks through five games.
Redshirt freshman linebacker Dominic Maultsby Jr. is coming off a 14-tackle performance against Concord that included three tackles for loss, a sack and a forced fumble. Maultsby was named MEC Defensive Player of the Week and a D2Football.com Player of the Week following the performance.
Maultsby leads West Liberty with 31 tackles and 5.5 tackles for loss, while Grant Neiswonger leads the team with 7.5 tackles for loss and shares the team lead with three sacks.
Salisbury said the defense has shown an ability to make critical plays when the Hilltoppers need them.
“Opportunistic at times,” Salisbury said. “Even though we struggled in the first half, I think they made the plays when we needed to.”
West Liberty owns a 43-23-1 advantage in the all-time series with West Virginia State.
The Hilltoppers won last year’s meeting, 47-41, at West Family Stadium on Oct. 4, 2025. The Yellow Jackets had won the previous three meetings, including a 57-37 decision in 2024.
For Salisbury, the challenge is straightforward: the Hilltoppers need to bring the same resilience they’ve displayed late in games while finding a way to establish themselves earlier.
“We like our 15-round fights. We’ll stay in there as long as you need us to,” Salisbury said. “But we need to start starting the fight earlier and stop taking such a beating early.”