UWF Argos Upset No. 19 Delta State

October 13, 2024

The University of West Florida football team put together one of its best all-around performances of the season on Saturday at PenAir Field to take down No. 19 Delta State in Gulf South Conference play.

UWF has now won two straight and are 3-2 overall and 2-1 in the GSC.

“It’s been a heck of a week,” said head coach Kaleb Nobles. “We’ve fought through some adversity. We had a couple tough games early in the season where we played a couple of very good teams. So there’s been a lot of people who’ve just forgotten about West Florida. But these guys are bought in. They’re showing up on time, going to study hall, showing up to weights on time. That stuff shows up.”

It showed up clearly in the stat lines.

The Argos put up 533 total yards of offense, led by redshirt freshman quarterback Marcus Stokes who had three passing touchdowns and two rushing scores. Stokes finished with 326 yards through the air, completing 17 of his 21 pass attempts and 55 yards rushing on eight attempts.

Corey Scott scored what was the game winning touchdown with 11:20 remaining in the fourth quarter. Stokes hit Scott deep down the left-hand side of the field for a 70-yard pass. The score gave UWF a 33-28 lead after the Argos failed the two-point conversion. Scott was the game’s leading receiver with five receptions for 139 yards and two touchdowns.

On UWF’s next offensive possession Stokes and Scott connected again for a touchdown following a 26-yard pass. The score gave the Argos a 40-28 lead with 5:46 remaining in the game to put the home team in the driver’s seat.

“The me and Marcus connection started off in the summer,” said Scott. “We are both from the same area. Even before we came here, we were catching and throwing.”

After taking the two score lead late in the fourth, the UWF defense put its stamp on the game by forcing a three-and-out for Delta State. A false start penalty pushed the Statesmen back five yards to a third down and 15 to go. Traevon Mitchell sniffed out a screen pass and batted it down to shut the drive down in Delta’s own territory. Mitchell was a force on the defensive end throughout the entire game. The junior defensive lineman had 10 tackles, including five tackles for loss, two sacks and a pass break up.

The Argos got the ball back with 5:22 remaining and never gave the ball back to Delta’s offense. Running backs Jay Sharp and TJ Lane chewed up clock with three first downs in the final drive which was also aided by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the visitors to close out the game. Lane finished with 115 yards rushing on 25 attempts. Sharp had 46 rushing yards.

UWF had a hot start to the game with touchdowns on its first two possessions to take a 13-0 lead in the first quarter. The Statesmen responded with back-to-back scoring drives to go up 14-13. But nearing the end of the first half was when the Argos stole all of the momentum back to carry into the second half. UWF found the endzone twice in the final 1:15 of the half. Stokes had a four-yard TD run to help UWF go up 20-14 and then Stokes found Jakobe Quillen for a 58-yard touchdown pass with 20 seconds remaining in the half. Quillen went for 109 yards receiving on the day.

Delta State finished with a balanced 143 yards passing and 140 yards on the ground.

Next up for the Argos is a long road trip to Murfreesboro, N.C. to take on Chowan on Oct. 19 at 1 p.m. ET/12:00 p.m. CT.

Photos Jon Rose/UWF for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News, Sports, TOP sports