Championship Game Stats

Championship Game Notes

Championship Game Quotes

Anthony Wales rushed for 209 yards and four touchdowns, Mike White threw for 421 yards and three more scores and WKU defeated Louisiana Tech, 58-44, on Saturday in the Dynacraft Conference USA Championship Game.
 
The Hilltoppers (10-3) and Bulldogs (8-5), who won the regular-season matchup 55-52 on Oct. 6, combined for 1,163 yards of total offense in the highest scoring championship game, not only in C-USA history, but of any FBS Conference championship game. It is the second straight title for WKU, which becomes just the second C-USA school to win back-to-back championship games. Both the Hilltoppers and LA Tech are headed to bowl games for the third year in a row, with bowl announcements set for Sunday afternoon.
 
Wales was named the game’s MVP after setting a new C-USA Championship record with five total touchdowns. He finished with 262 yards of total offense, catching five passes for 53 yards in addition to his work on the ground.
 
"I thought it was one heck of a football game and what championship games should be about,” said WKU head coach Jeff Brohm.  There was a lot of high scoring going back and forth with plays being made. We were for fortunate enough to make more in the end and found a way to win.”
 
After both teams traded field goals on their opening drives, Wales gave WKU a 10-3 lead with a 15-yard touchdown run.  That marked the 10^th consecutive game that Wales has scored at least one TD.  Wales added his second scoring run on a 28-yard jaunt to make it the highest scoring first quarter in C-USA Championship Game history. It was his eighth multiple-TD game of the season.
 
Louisiana Tech tied it up at 17-17 when Ryan Higgins hit Carlos Henderson on a 15-yard scoring strike, Henderson’s 21st TD of the season. WKU pulled back in the lead on a 10-yard TD pass from Mike White to Wales, a score set up by a 55-yard White to Taywan Taylor pass two plays earlier.
 
Louisiana Tech evened the game early in the second quarter when Ryan Higgins tossed a five-yard TD to Jarred Craft, pushing Higgins over the 200-yard passing mark just 19 minutes into the game.
 
Forty-nine seconds later, WKU reclaimed the lead when White hit Taylor on a 45-yard pass play for Taylor’s second score of the game. After LA Tech booted a field goal, WKU used a 57-yard kickoff return by Kylen Towner to set up the Hilltoppers sixth scoring drive, culminating in a three-yard TD pass from White to Taylor.
 
After the highest scoring first half in C-USA Championship history, LA Tech struck first in the third quarter, as Higgins hit a wide-open Kam McKnight for a 53-yard touchdown. Three minutes later, McKnight would then put the Bulldogs into their first lead of the game with a one-yard scoring run on fourth down to make it 41-38.
 
After Skyler Simcox tied the game at 41-41 for WKU, Wales put the Hilltoppers back in the lead with his championship-record-tying fourth touchdown of the day, a 15-yard run. Wales set the record on the final score of the day, a 13-yard run with 58 seconds to play for his fifth TD of the game.
 
White was 21-of-31 for 421 yards, with Taywan Taylor grabbing seven passes for 194 yards and two touchdowns.
 
For LA Tech, Higgins was 35-of-57 passing for 502 yards and three touchdowns, while Henderson caught nine passes for 202 receiving yards and a touchdown. Trent Taylor added 108 receiving yards of his own, while Kam McKnight saw the end zone twice, once through the air and another on the ground.