Box Score
Kentucky Wesleyan had all the momentum heading into halftime and were in good position for a home win over St. Joseph's.
Then the second half happened.
St. Joseph's (5-4, 4-2 GLVC) scored 17 unanswered points to start the second half and fought off a late surge from the Panthers (2-7, 0-6 GLVC) to spoil KWC's Homecoming with a 38-27 win.
"It was a funny game today," KWC coach Brent Holsclaw said. "My thoughts are that field positioning had a lot to do with the third quarter. Most of our drives in the third quarter were at the 15-yar line in. That's a lot of field to ground. We're playing better offensively. We're getting points. We had three touchdowns today offensively, and that's about our average."
As the first half was close to its end Rykan Jones hit St. Joseph's quarterback Billy VandeMerkt, causing an errant throw that Damion James picked off and returned 75 yards for a score.
After the extra point, the Panthers went into halftime tied with the Pumas, 14-14.
But St. Joseph's came out firing in the second half. VandeMerkt threw for an 18-yard touchdown, which was followed up near the end of the third quarter with a 36-yard field goal by Puma kicker Gavin Voss.
VandeMerkt then ran for a 14-yard touchdown to open the fourth quarter, putting St. Joseph's up 31-14.
The Panthers scored twice in the fourth quarter, a 14-yard pass from Will Barnes to Neil Johnson and four-yard run by Barnes, but St. Joseph's scored once between those two scores to seal it.
VandeMerkt finished with 183 yards passing and one touchdown, while Braxton Shelton ran for 157 yards to lead the Pumas. St. Joseph's finished with 290 rushing yards.
Barnes threw for 216 yards and two touchdowns.
"The tale of the game was their rushing game," Holsclaw said. They do a nice job of converting on third downs. That's something we've got to worry about is our third down defense. We're very young on defense right now and it's starting to show. Teams figure things out and we're trying to make adjustments."
