Kentucky Wesleyan College Athletics

Kentucky Wesleyan College's search a second win for the first time since the 2010 season will have to wait another week.

The Panthers (1-2) were unable to cash in on two possessions in the final two minutes and fell, 29-26, at William Jewell in Liberty, Mo., on Saturday.

"That's the breaks of the game," KWC coach Brent Holsclaw said. "This is the tough part of football. These are the games that are gut-wrenching. My heart goes out to our troops. They played really tough football for the majority of the game."

Despite leading 17-7 at halftime, KWC allowed the Cardinals (1-2) to score two unanswered touchdowns and fell behind 21-17.

The KWC defense picked off William Jewell quarterback Sean Shelton late in the third quarter to regain possession, setting up a 42-yard field goal by Matt Wilson that cut the Cardinals' lead to 21-20 early in the fourth quarter.

Then it KWC's turn to retake the lead.

Quarterback Will Barnes, who was 20-of-39 passing for 199 yards on the day, found Jeff Ward for a 9-yard touchdown pass. The Panthers led 26-21 after a failed two-point conversion.

That turned out to be a crucial play.

Nearly four minutes later, KWC was called for a facemask penalty and William Jewell was at the 5-yard line. The Cardinals marched down the field and Shelton threw a 5-yard touchdown pass, then converted a two-point conversion to go up 29-26.

With nearly two minutes left, KWC was called for an illegal formation on a  fourth-and-two, but converted on a fourth-and-long to keep the drive and the game alive with 1:30 left to play.

But on the next play, Barnes threw an interception — his second of the game.

The KWC defense was able to hold William Jewell to just four yards on the ensuing drive. On a third-and-6 play, the Cardinals elected to pass instead of running the clock out.

Redshirt freshman Rykan Jones intercepted the ball for KWC and brought it back inside the 10-yard line. The Panthers were out of timeouts, but caught a break when a William Jewell player injury forced the clock to stop.

Wilson trotted out for what would have been a game-tying field goal, but a bad snap prevented the kick from getting off.

Defensively, the Panthers created four turnovers, but they plagued themselves with three turnovers of their own.

"I felt for the majority of the game, it was obvious who the better team was, but we didn't find a way to put it away," Holsclaw said. "Offensively today, not us. Three turnovers, that doesn't define who we are. We came into the game without a turnover...we've got to clean things up."