Box Score
Kentucky Wesleyan made a valiant comeback against heavily favored Truman State on Saturday, but came up short in a 35-27 loss to the visiting Bulldogs in a Great Lakes Valley Conference college football game at Steele Stadium.
The Panthers (0-9, 0-5 GLVC) scored 20 consecutive second-half points to trim a 28-point deficit to eight, and had the ball inside the final three minutes after recovering an onside kick, before being turned away.
"I'm extremely proud of our kids — this is the type of team I expect us to have," KWC coach
Brent Holsclaw said. "We're never satisfied when we lose, but we played extremely hard. We kept chopping and kept fighting, and battled our way back into the the game.
'You have to give the credit to these young men."
Truman State (7-2, 5-0) led 35-7 following Conrad Schottle's 20-yard scoring pass to Dahn Kemp early in the third quarter, but KWC got a 2-yard TD pass from Will Barnes to Jeff Ward, a 35-yard scoring pass from Barnes to Keelan Cole, and a 47-yard TD pass from Barnes to Ward to close the gap.
KWC's other score came at 9:17 of the first period when Cole returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown to tie the contest at 7.
Barnes finished 25-of-44 through the air for 330 yards and three touchdowns, with no interceptions. Ward, meanwhile, caught seven passes for 150 yards and two scores.
The big gun for Truman State was running back Garrett White, who carried 16 times for 158 yards and three touchdowns. Running mate Aaron Hatfield added 81 yards on 14 tries with one TD.
Kentucky Wesleyan returns to Steele Stadium at 1 p.m. next Saturday when it plays host to William Jewell.
