Cullowhee, N.C. – Cole Gonzales matched his career-high with five touchdown passes including two to tight end Ajay Belanger, but #16/10 Western Carolina was unable to overcome six turnovers including two that went for Mercer scores in suffering a 45-38 loss to the Bears on Homecoming Saturday in front of 12,154 fans at E.J. Whitmire Stadium / Bob Waters Field.
 
WCU lost three of its four fumbles on the day, two coming on kickoff returns. The first turnover came on the game's opening kickoff with another going for a scoop-and-score of a mid-first quarter fumble on a return. Gonzales also tossed three interceptions including a pick-six by Mercer's Lance Wise just one play after the Catamount defense had thwarted a would-be scoring drive by forcing a takeaway of its own.
 
Combined, Mercer scored on three of WCU's giveaways. But equally important, WCUs miscues prevented the high-scoring Catamount offense from finding the endzone.
 
Gonzales had a career day, completing a career-high 32 of his 51 pass attempts for a career-best 388 yards through the air. He added 42 yards on the ground as the Catamounts were again without two key starters on offense including tailback Desmond Reid and right tackle Derek Simmons. In place of Reid, Branson Adams caught a career-high eight passes out of the backfield for 39 yards, stretching for a 12-yard second quarter receiving score. Adams added 46 rushing yards as WCU was held below the 100-yard rushing mark collectively as a team for a second-straight game.
 
Senior David White Jr. tallied the first 100-yard receiving effort of his WCU career, catching five passes for a team-high 113 yards and a touchdown. Calvin Jones and Censere Lee matched with five receptions for 89 and 80 yards, respectively, with Jones recording a touchdown. AJ Colombo also caught seven passes for 56 yards. WCU tight end Ajay Belanger had an interesting stat line, scoring twice on two receptions for 11 total yards while also adding his first career interception, dropping back in prevent defense on the final play of the first half.
 
Mercer quarterback Carter Peevy accounted for three touchdowns, rushing for two scores with 38 yards and tossing an 18-yard TD pass to Ty James in the 21-point first quarter. James finished with six catches for 115 yards. On the ground, eight different Bears recorded rushes with Al Wooten II recording 15 carries for 68 yards and a score.
 
After spotting the Bears with a short field on the lost fumble on the game's opening kickoff, the Catamounts managed to settle and knot the game at seven on White's 18-yard TD reception as WCU cashed-in the first of two lost fumbles by the Bears. The home squad then saw its guests score 14 points between consecutive plays and just 13 seconds apart. On the ensuing kickoff after a Ty James 18-yard TD catch, Mic Wasson scooped up a fumble on the return and rumbled 24 yards for the score.
 
Trailing 28-7 early in the second quarter, the Catamounts managed to pull to within two scores when Adams stretched out for a 12-yard TD catch to send the teams to the locker room at 28-14, but not before Belanger intercepted Peevy in the endzone on a Hail Mary pass.
 
Mercer regained its 21-point lead on the short interception return for a touchdown by Lance Wise as he jumped a route with WCU coming out from inside its own five-yard line as the visitors led 35-14 midway through the third quarter.
 
The Catamounts rallied, though, on a pair of Belanger TD receptions of four and seven yards respectively coming just three minutes apart to make it a one-score, 35-28, affair. After missing a pair of field goals in the first half, Mercer's Reice Griffith stretched the margin back to 10 on a 44-yard field goal with 12 minutes remaining in regulation.
 
WCU made it interesting in the final frame as Calvin Jones bookended a scoring drive that made it a three-point game with eight minutes to play. Jones returned the kickoff 39 yards to start the sequence, setting the Catamounts up with plus field position. The Forest City, N.C. product finished the scoring drive with a 20-yard reception, lunging in at the goal line to revive the Homecoming Day crowd.
 
However, Mercer responded with a 42-yard kickoff return by Devron Harper and added chunk plays of 22 yards on a Peevy rush and a 17-yard TD rush by Wooten II to push the margin back to 10.
 
Needing two scores, WCU elected for a 27-yard Richard McCollum field goal inside the game's final 10 seconds to make it 45-38 and set-up an on-sides kick attempt. But the Bears recovered the attempt and benefited from a WCU penalty to seal the win – its eighth-straight over the Catamounts in the series.
 
Two Catamounts were credited with double-digit tackles as Andreas Keaton posted a career-high 12 stops including five solo and half a tackle for loss, while Antoine Williams had his best game in a WCU uniform with 10 tackles including four solo and two for loss. Williams also forced and recovered a fumble with Va Lealaimatafao recovering a forced fumble by Jayelin Davis, who also recorded one of the two sacks by the Catamount defense. Rod Gattison finished with five tackles including a sack while also breaking up three passes.
 
Ken Standley and Lance Wise paced the Mercer defense with eight tackles apiece, Standley posting two TFLs including a sack while Wise had the interception return for a touchdown for the Bears.
 
Western Carolina (5-3, 3-2 SoCon) looks to halt a two-game slide as it travels to Wofford (0-8, 0-5 SoCon) next Saturday in conference play with kickoff from Gibbs Stadium scheduled for 3 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ (paid subscription required) with live audio from the Catamount Sports Network beginning at 2 p.m.
 
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