On Saturday Sept. 13, ETSU football faced a brand new opponent in the University of West Georgia at their home stadium in Carrollton, Georgia. These two teams have never competed against each other before, and both entered uncharted territory for this game. This is the University of West Georgia’s second year as a Division 1 school in football, after being in Division 2 for many years. They proved to be a strong opponent against the Buccaneers this weekend with a final score of 35-31 in West Georgia’s favor.
The Bucs led No. 25 UWG for most of the game, but the Wolves rallied for 15 unanswered fourth-quarter points to clinch the victory. A two-yard touchdown pass with 15 seconds remaining gave UWG their first lead since the first quarter, and sealed the 35-31 win.
ETSU quarterback Jacolby Crisswell, sharing duties with Cade McNamara, threw for three touchdown passes. The Bucs intercepted UWG three times.
Andy Fisher, the associate director of athletic communications at ETSU, was asked what the purpose of this third non-SoCon game was. He said that playing this game will help our team “gain experience and also allows for us to work the kinks out. It’s another opportunity to get out on the field, and will prepare us for a similar type of opponent we’ll see once we reach conference play.”
ETSU’s first game against Murray State was an overwhelming win for the Buccaneers, while the second game versus University of Tennessee was a devastating loss for ETSU. Fisher said,”It gave our guys a chance to respond when things aren’t going our way, and nobody gave up and nobody quit, they continued to compete for the entire game. It also showed plenty of stuff that our team needs to work on. After Murray State, it was all kind of sunshine and rainbows for the most part, but it just gives us an opportunity to come back down to Earth for a little bit and reset.”
The Buccaneers have played hard this season but currently are 1-2 overall. The Bucs next game will be up against Elon at home in William B Greene. Jr Stadium on Sept. 20.
For more information on future Buccaneer football games, you can go to ETSUBucs.com and click on the football tab.
