No. 14 Mercer defeats No. 24 Western Carolina 44-34 thanks to McGee’s electric rushing performance

For Mercer football fans, it probably felt like the same story as last week for about 25 minutes.

With about five minutes left until halftime, the Bears had dug themselves into another hole — not nearly as deep as last week’s early 28-0 deficit to Samford, of course, but a similar plot nonetheless. No. 24 Western Carolina had No. 14 Mercer down 24-7 with only a sliver of time left before the break.

Then the Bears came up with a twist ending.

Mercer rode a stellar rushing performance from Dwayne McGee — including a 64-yard touchdown run right after the Catamounts went up by that 24-7 margin to keep the Bears’ hopes afloat — and an explosive offense to an impressive 44-34 comeback victory over Western Carolina at Five Star Stadium in Macon Saturday afternoon.

The Bears struggled to move the ball on offense early with freshman quarterback Whit Newbauer, who got his first career start with normal first-string passer D.J. Smith injured.

Fans might have been concerned, but head coach Mike Jacobs could see that this was not the same team that came out flat in Birmingham a week ago.

“I didn’t think we started slow, I think Western just came out playing well,” Jacobs said after the game. “I give our kids a ton of credit, there was no panic. They just went play by play, and we started executing at a much higher level. You go into the game knowing that they’re gonna get their yards on offense, it’s more about stops.”

McGee, whose incredible run kick-started the comeback, finished with 223 rushing yards and two scores. He averaged 12.4 yards per carry thanks to several more explosive plays.

“Coming off that loss, we’d seen we weren’t aggressive at all… so all week this week we practiced in full pads, we got after it. We had to prove to ourselves that we could be those guys on the field,” McGee said. “Today, all I was thinking after I had to face adversity, I went to the offensive line and said, ‘Unhook the trailer. Let’s go.’”

It was also a “confidence thing,” McGee noted. The team, even down 17 points early, played with a smoothness they simply did not have against Samford in the preceding loss. 

McGee’s 64-yard score that electrified the team and crowd when Mercer was down offered an excellent example — the running back was so confident in the play, he was thinking of scoring before the snap.

“It worked just exactly how we said. It was kinda crazy because right before the ball hike, I told Whit, ‘I’ma see you in the end zone.’ He started laughing,” McGee said with a smile. “Next thing you know it, when I scored, I stopped and I said, ‘I told you I’m gonna see you in the end zone!’ It was crazy.”

Newbauer was no slouch throwing the ball, either, finding a particularly potent passing connection with Kelin Parsons. The wideout recorded his second consecutive 100-yard receiving game and needed only four catches to do it. Two of those grabs were huge gains on the Bears’ last drive before half that set Mercer up on the goal line.

“I thought Whit did well. We don’t want game managers, we want guys that can make big plays. We had a little bit of time right there before half, he came right out, hit the big long pass to Kelin Parsons,” Jacobs said. “We have a lot of faith in him.”

Once things got rolling right before halftime, there was no turning back. McGee ripped off his second long touchdown right after the break to give Mercer its first lead of the game.

The Bears’ defense improved greatly in the second half, but Western Carolina still threatened late after hitting a field goal that cut Mercer’s lead to 37-34 with about five minutes left. The Catamounts still had three timeouts.

Then, in the drive that perhaps best encapsulated the game, McGee gashed Western Carolina for huge plays repeatedly before his rushing mate CJ Miller broke the Catamounts’ backs with a 31-yard touchdown run to make it 44-34.

On one of those big runs, McGee and the offensive line turned what seemed to be a 3-yard gain at most into a roughly 15-yard run by moving the pile. The play got the crowd loud and exemplified the resilience the Bears had all afternoon.

“You wanna talk about a character run when we’re in a four minute situation trying to run the clock out. They had kind of stuffed it up, but between the lineman and McGee churning his feet we ended up with a 14 or 15-yard gain on that play,” Jacobs said. “I thought that spoke very loudly on who you’re gonna be for the rest of the game.”

McGee was glad to help close the game out but had to give credit where it was due.

“Huge shoutout to the offensive line, by the way. They carried me,” he said. “I don’t know how I kept moving. (Offensive lineman) Xavier Jennings literally picked me up and took me for 11 yards. So that probably counts on my stat sheet, but we should probably give it to him.”

The bounce-back win — Mercer’s third victory over a ranked team this season — moved the Bears to 7-1 and 4-1 in the Southern Conference, putting them in great position headed into a key conference game with ETSU for Homecoming next week. Western Carolina dropped to 4-4 overall and 3-1 in SoCon play.

McGee sparks offense in comeback win

The Bears looked weak on Western Carolina’s opening drive, regularly letting the Catamounts shed tackles on short passes to move the chains. A few chunk plays on the ground balanced things for Western Carolina as they drove 68 yards in the blink of an eye to go up 7-0.

After Mercer’s first drive with Newbauer at the helm dried up quickly, the Catamounts took advantage and put together another smooth sequence of their own that concluded with a tight spiral from Cole Gonzales to AJ Colombo in the back of the end zone that put Western Carolina up 14-0 early.

On the ropes, Newbauer and the Bears stepped up. After some nice passes and a few runs that kept things moving, a crucial Catamounts offsides penalty on fourth down and a pass from Newbauer to Parsons set Mercer up at the 3-yardline. Newbauer hit Smith on a nice end zone route to cut the lead to 14-7 right at the start of the second quarter.

After a couple more drives with no points for the Bears and a field goal for the Catamounts, Mercer got some offense going thanks to explosive rushing from McGee. With third down and maybe a foot to go, though, the Bears lined up in the shotgun for two straight plays and were stiffly stood up by the Western Carolina defense.

The Cats capitalized on the big momentum swing and drove easily down the field, polishing of the series with a rushing touchdown for Gonzales to go up 24-7.

The rest of the second quarter, however, was a whirlwind of shifting Mercer momentum. McGee continued his torrid stretch with another huge run, this one going 64 yards for a touchdown to make it 24-14. 

After the Bears finally contained Western Carolina’s offense on the ensuing drive, Newbauer took control and started hitting impressive passes, including two more long strikes to Parsons. Mercer pushed the ball inside the Catamounts 5-yardline before Newbauer pulled the ball on a handoff, put a nifty move on a defender and waltzed into the end zone less than a minute before the half ended.

The touchdown brought the score to 24-21 and completely changed the game heading into the break. McGee finished the first half with 118 yards on just seven carries, while Parsons had 97 yards on three catches.

McGee stayed hot to start the second half, putting the Bears in front on a monster 59-yard rumble for six. After the defense did their part with a convincing three-and-out of Western Carolina, the offense rolled again and kicked a field goal to make it 31-24 about midway through the third quarter.

Mercer then gave the Catamounts a taste of their own medicine — Western Carolina brought its own drive into enemy territory and faced a fourth and inches only for the Bears to stuff a wide run and deny the Cats any yardage.

Mercer seized the opportunity and took the ball inside the 10-yardline, though it had to settle for a field goal to make it 34-24 with about two minutes left in the third quarter.

The two squads then traded empty drives before Western Carolina put together an 80-yard scoring sequence, overcoming multiple third downs to make it 34-31 with about 10 minutes to play.

Unfazed by the scoring drive, Brayden Smith fielded the ensuing kick at the 1-yardline and took all the way back to the Catamounts’ 40. On top of the return, a defender hit Smith after he was already out of bounds to give the Bears 15 extra yards. Mercer snagged a field goal thanks to the return and flag.

Western Carolina put up a fight as the game wound down and cut the lead to three, but McGee and Miller’s electric runs in the final five minutes sealed the 44-34 win.