This week's preparation leading up to the West Virginia State football team's final regular-season game has been a little different than the last few weeks.
After losing seven games in a row, the Yellow Jackets were able to pull through and hold on for their second victory of the season in a 52-45 shootout against Concord - a win that has helped lift the team's spirits a bit as the end of the season draws closer.
"It's a giant weight off this team's shoulders and we saw that in the locker room on Saturday. It's great to see them come in more upbeat, those guys deserve that," West Virginia State coach Jon Anderson said. "We're going to use it as something to build on coming into this one and into the offseason. We have a lot of guys that continued to work hard and put forth great effort when we were struggling and it's great to see them get rewarded for it."
The Yellow Jackets (2-8 overall, 2-7 Mountain East Conference) will hit the road this week to take on West Liberty (4-6, 4-5) and try to keep that momentum rolling.
In order to do that, West Virginia State knows it must do the same little things it did in last week's win. Offensively, WVSU found a nice balance between the running game and the aerial attack that has been so strong all season.
And defensively, despite allowing 45 points, the Yellow Jackets were able to force turnovers and do enough when it mattered to hold on for the win - and that's what made Anderson the most proud as they look to keep things moving in the right direction.
"We needed to be able to do that and come up big when we did. We still gave up some big plays and we need to make teams earn it all the way down the field more," Anderson said. "Our focus this week has been on limiting those big plays but also leaning on forcing turnovers and attacking the football."
That could prove to be vital against a Hilltoppers team that is 4-6 on the season and has what can be a versatile offense thanks to the play of quarterback Dakota Conwell.
The Arizona transfer has become one of the top dual-threat signal-callers in the MEC this season. He has thrown for 1,989 yards and 20 touchdowns while adding 548 yards and four more scores on the ground.
A lot of that success through the air has come with Conwell throwing to Dan Monteroso for 49 catches for 799 yards with 12 touchdowns.
Anderson knows that limiting what Conwell does is the key to limiting the amount of success that West Liberty can have offensively.
"They have one of the toughest kids I've ever seen at quarterback," Anderson said. "He's an athlete and does so many things well. Everything they do is going to go through him and we have to be focused to stop him."
Last week, West Virginia State gained more than 600 yards of offense. Wide receiver Quinton Gray caught seven passes for 211 yards and three touchdowns while Dionta Brown become WVSU's second running back to gain more than 100 yards in a game this season.
"Repeating what we did last week is the best thing we can do," Anderson said. "Obviously it becomes an easier sell when you have success like we did last week. It's the same thing every week, you have to prepare for a good opponent and have the right mindset. Hopefully we can have more spring in our step because these guys are feeling good about themselves right now."
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.